144 ON THE FEONTIEE. 



Being hungry, I utilised the time by eating my luncheon, 

 and then fell to smoking. Well, he kept me there over an 

 hour, and then started off in a straight line in a trot. As 

 he took a ' bee-line ' for the river, I knew what he was 

 after he was going to take his ' little drink.' I, too, 

 should have liked to indulge in a little drink to wash down 

 my luncheon. 



" As soon as the buck was well under weigh I started at 

 the double, on a parallel course, hoping to get a shot at 

 him in the river's bottom. I crossed the open ground of 

 the valley in a bend that was above and out of sight of 

 the course he was taking, got into the cover along the 

 river's bank, and followed it down, but saw nothing of him. 

 By-and-by I came to where the buck had drank. He had 

 there crossed the river and gone straight on at a long easy 

 trot towards the Sierra Ve'rde. 



" Should he intend going up the mountain my chance of 

 seeing him again that day was over ; if he was going to 

 feed in the pifion ridges, then careful stalking and the 

 avoiding of all mistakes would make him my meat. I 

 could not afford to lose time by going to a beaver-dam to 

 cross, so at once peeled and waded over. 



" After going about two miles, the buck's tracks 

 showed he had subsided into a walk, and then almost 

 immediately turned, to my great satisfaction, into the 

 piiion-ridge country, in which, after about an hour's careful 

 stalking, I sighted him again. He was strolling along, 

 feeding, but it was getting pretty well on towards sunset 

 before I was able to approach close enough to him to 

 care to fire a shot, for I had taken so much trouble that I 



