1 86 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



error lay, and this is going a long way toward cor- 

 recting it. I kept wishing that I could get another 

 chance to- see if I had not profited by my lessons ; 

 and before we reached home my wish was gratified. 

 We were loping down a grassy valley, dotted with 

 clumps of brush, the wind blowing strong in our 

 faces, and deadening the noise made by the hoofs on 

 the grass. As we passed by a piece of broken 

 ground a yearling black-tail buck jumped into view 

 and cantered away. I was off Manitou's back in an 

 instant. The buck was moving slowly, and was 

 evidently soon going to stop and look round, so I 

 dropped on one knee, with my rifle half raised, and 

 waited. When about sixty yards off he halted and 

 turned sidewise to me, offering a beautiful broad- 

 side shot. I aimed at the spot just behind the shoul- 

 der and felt I had him. At the report he went off, 

 but with short, weak bounds, and I knew he would 

 not go far; nor did he, but stopped short, swayed 

 unsteadily about, and went over on his side, dead, 

 the bullet clean through his body. 



Each of us already had a deer behind his saddle, 

 so we could not take the last buck along with us. 

 Accordingly we dressed him, and hung him up by 

 the heels to a branch of a tree, piling the brush 

 around as if building a slight pen or trap, to keep off 

 the coyotes ; who, anyhow, are not apt to harm game 

 that is hanging up, their caution seeming to make 

 them fear that it will not be safe to do so. In such 

 cold weather a deer hung up in this way will keep 

 an indefinite length of time ; and the carcass was all 



