The Black-Tail Deer 185 



can carry 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 re- 

 duces 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 lurking 

 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 mor- 

 tal wound, but one which allowed her to run over 

 a mile before dying. It was little more than an ac- 

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

 missing at such short range was due purely to care- 

 lessness 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 re- 

 sult 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 



