n6 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



The buck was a cunning old beast, keeping in the 

 densest cover, and often doubling back on his trail 

 and sneaking off to one side as his pursuer passed 

 by. Finally it grew too dark to see the tracks any 

 longer, and Ferris came home. 



Next morning early we went out to where he 

 had left the trail, feeling very sure from his descrip 

 tion of the place (which was less than a mile from 

 the house) that we would get the buck; for when 

 he had abandoned the pursuit the deer was in a 

 copse of bushes and young trees some hundreds of 

 yards across, and in this it had doubtless spent the 

 night, for it was extremely unlikely that, wounded 

 and tired as it was, it would go any distance after 

 finding that it was no longer pursued. 



When we got to the thicket we first made a circuit 

 round it to see if the wounded animal had broken 

 cover, but though there were fresh deer tracks lead 

 ing both in and out of it, none of them were made 

 by a cripple; so we knew he was still within. It 

 would seem to be a very easy task to track up and 

 kill a broken-legged buck in light snow; but we 

 had to go very cautiously, for though with only 

 three legs he could still run a good deal faster than 

 either of us on two, and we were anxious not to 

 alarm him and give him a good start. Then there 

 were several well-beaten cattle trails through the 

 thicket, and in addition to that one or two other 

 deer had been walking to and fro within it ; so that 

 it was hard work to follow the tracks. After work 

 ing some little time we hit on the right trail, finding 



