THE MULE DEER. 313 



rather amused at his apparent sincerity of expression, and 

 asked him if he had ever known or heard of an enchanted 

 stag; and he replied that, while he did not believe in en- 

 chantment except when exercised by woman's eyes, he was 

 positively sure that there was an occasional buck that no 

 person could hit with an ordinary rifle, and he felt certain 

 that this was one of that class. While this conversation 

 Avas taking place we were moving rapidly after the runa- 

 ways ; but before we had proceeded five hundred yards he 

 gave an exclamation of surprise, slapped his right thigh ve- 

 hemently, and said, in the most emphatic manner, "By Je- 

 rusalem ! I've got him ; he ain't enchanted after all." On 

 looking at the ground, I saw several large drops of blood, 

 and, following them up, we came upon the stag in a clump 

 of bushes. ITo was perfectly dead, and by the manner in 

 which he lay we presumed he had received a wound in the 

 heart. An examination revealed this fact, and also that a 

 rifle-ball had struck the under portion of his tail; as it was 

 cut, though not deeply, from the tip to nearly the root. 



After my friend had exhausted his joy at having killed 

 such a tough customer, he said he would pardon him now 

 for waving his tail at him, for almost any "critter" would 

 hoist his flag when it was stung like that. We treated 

 this one as we had the last, but, instead of hanging it, wc 

 cached it on a huge bowlder, to keep it safe from wolves 

 and bears. 



Our next move was to clamber toward the summit of 

 the mountain, but always beating to the windward, as we 

 did not want to lose any chances, and the deer were appar- 

 ently so plentiful, and so little hunted, that we were anx- 

 ious to secure venison enough to last for some time. We 

 trudged along for an hour or more, but saw none, though 

 their slots were visible in many places. On reaching a 

 small basin-like tarn, we scanned its banks closely, and de- 

 scried on the opposite side a group of half a dozen or more 

 stags, which were slaking their thirst in its bluish water. 



While we were standing in the shade of a tree, we no- 

 ticed that they took only one long draught before raising 



14 



