The Black-Tail Deer 181 



were confident we should soon get a shot. Keeping 

 at the bottom of the gullies, so as to be ourselves 

 inconspicuous, we walked noiselessly on, cautiously 

 examining every pocket or turn before we rounded 

 the corner, and looking with special care along the 

 edges of the patches of brush. 



At last, just as the sun had risen, we came out by 

 the mouth of a deep ravine or hollow, cut in the 

 flank of the plateau, with steep, cedar-clad sides; 

 and on the crest of a jutting spur, not more than 

 thirty yards from where I stood, was a black-tail doe, 

 half facing me. I was in the shadow, and for a 

 moment she could not make me out, and stood mo 

 tionless with her head turned toward me and her 

 great ears thrown forward. Dropping on my knee, 

 I held the rifle a little back of her shoulder too far 

 back, as it proved, as she stood quartering and not 

 broadside to me. No fairer chance could ever fall 

 to the lot of a hunter; but, to my intense chagrin, 

 she bounded off at the report as if unhurt, disap 

 pearing instantly. My companion had now come 

 up, and we ran up a rise of ground, and crouched 

 down beside a great block of sandstone, in a position 

 from which we overlooked the whole ravine or hol 

 low. After some minutes of quiet watchfulness, we 

 heard a twig snap the air was so still we could hear 

 anything some rods up the ravine, but below us; 

 and immediately afterward a buck stole out of the 

 cedars. Both of us fired at once, and with a convul 

 sive spring he rolled over backward, one bullet hav 

 ing gone through his neck, and the other probably 



