226 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



two or three days. We made camp the second night at the 

 Tumbledumps in the western part of Wheeler county, and 

 here we expected to find game. 



My rifle on this occasion was a Sharps carbine which 

 has been mentioned often heretofore, while Deede carried 

 a Smith and Wesson rifle using a 32-short cartridge. It 

 was an accurate, spiteful little gun, but was short range. 



While in camp at the Tumbledumps we sighted a herd 

 of elk and went after them, with the result that after follow- 

 ing them all day and getting two or three shots, all of which 

 were misses, we drove them out of that part of the country. 

 Going back to camp and targeting my rifle I found the front 

 sight was out of place, and that this had caused the bad 

 shooting. Leaving the elk, with the hope of finding them 

 again on our way back, we went on west into the big rough 

 sand hills between the head of Beaver creek and the Cedar 

 river, where we were to make our permanent hunting camp. 

 When moving camp Deede drove the team while I went 

 ahead to act as pilot and to keep a sharp lookout for game, 

 as we were likely to come onto black tail deer at any time 

 after reaching the rough hills. We did find game even 

 sooner than we expected. I kept about twenty rods ahead 

 of the team, traveling slowly and keeping a sharp lookout 

 ahead, and on rising a hill being very careful to only show 

 my head until the country had been well looked over. On 

 coming to the top of a ridge I saw two black tail does, lying 

 down beyond a narrow valley and near the top of the next 

 ridge. Motioning for the team to stop, I got down out of 

 sight and waited for Deede to come up. It was safe to leave 

 the team by setting the brake, and fastening the lines. We 

 crawled as near as possible and then made ready to shoot. 

 The deer had seen us and were standing up looking our way, 

 but evidently could not make out what we were. At the 

 count of three we fired, my deer falling after a jump or two, 

 but the distance was too great for the little gun, and the shot 



