The Black-Tail Deer. 17* 



'any amount of weight at a smart pace, and does not care 

 at all if a strap breaks and he finds his load dangling 

 about his feet, an event that reduces most horses to a state 

 of frantic terror. As soon as loaded we rode down the 

 valley into which the doe had disappeared in the morning, 

 one taking each side and looking into every possible lurk- 

 ing place. The odds were all against our finding any 

 trace of her ; but a hunter soon learns that he must take 

 advantage of every chance, however slight. This time we 

 were rewarded for our care ; for after riding about a mile 

 our attention was attracted by a white patch in a clump of 

 low briars. On getting off and looking in it proved to be 

 the white rump of the doe, which lay stretched out inside, 

 stark and stiff. The ball had gone in too far aft and had 

 come out on the opposite side near her hip, making a 

 mortal wound, but one which allowed her to run over a 

 mile before dying. It was little more than an accident 

 that we in the end got her ; and my so nearly missing at 

 such short range was due purely to carelessness and bad 

 judgment. I had killed too many deer to be at all nervous 

 over them, and was as cool with a buck as with a rabbit ; 

 but as she was so close I made the common mistake of 

 being too much in a hurry, and did not wait to see that 

 she was standing quartering to me and that consequently 

 I should aim at the point of the shoulder. As a result the 

 deer was nearly lost. 



Neither of my shots had so far done me much credit ; 

 but at any rate I had learned where the error lay, and this 

 is going a long way toward correcting it. I kept wishing 

 that I could get another chance to see if I had not profited 



