THE MULE DEER. 315 



attempt to escape ; and as we intended to make hay while 

 the sun shone, we opened a rapid fire on them, and kept it 

 up for several seconds. When we ceased the majority of 

 the pack were gone, but they left five of their comrades, 

 dead and wounded, behind them. Two were killed out- 

 right ; and the other three were so badly crippled that they 

 could not escape; and these we soon finished with our re- 

 volvers. They made no effort to show fight, and we could 

 have kicked them without, apparently, eliciting any more 

 display of feeling from them than a howl of pain. 



Having had a most unexpected and unusual, if not ex- 

 traordinary, morning's sport, we decided to place all our 

 game together in a secure cache, and to take home only 

 one buck for fresh meat. It took us four hours of hard 

 walking and steady toil to accomplish this ; and, when wo 

 finished, we were as weary a pair of hunters as the coun- 

 try could produce that day. When we returned to camp 

 we found its faithful guardian dozing near the fire, and re- 

 ceived from him a joyous greeting. 



While my comrade attended to the prepai'ations for sup- 

 per I went for water to the rivulet; and there I found a 

 splendid yearling doe lying dead, her throat being cut open 

 and torn from the jowl to near the chest. I supposed at 

 first it was the work of a cougar, but, on tilting up the legs, 

 I saw the blood run out; and knowing the habit that ani- 

 mal has of drinking up the life fluid before it touches any- 

 thing else, and then dragging the body away to a place 

 of concealment, I concluded I had guessed wrongly that 

 time; yet I knew it could not have been wolves that had 

 killed her, or they would have eaten her in the twinkling 

 of an eye. I was sorely puzzled to account for her death, 

 and, when I returned to camp, I told my companion of the 

 fact. " It must be Dick's work," said he ; " and, if it is, 

 we'll soon know it." Calling the dog, we returned to the 

 rivulet, and when we approached it that intelligent fellow 

 ran forward and commenced worrying the animal — a proof 

 that he had seen it before ; so we decided that he was the 

 hero of the occasion. 



