352 SrORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



sight. He was hit with only one buckshot; but that readi- 

 ed a vulnerable part, the end of the spinal column. He 

 would have fallen at once, in all probability, were it not 

 for the pace at which he was running, and that momentum 

 carried him to where he fell. I gralloched him in a few 

 seconds, and dragged him after me to my original stand, 

 where I resumed my weary sentinel duty. 



After being there half an hour longer, I heard the stir- 

 ring cry of the hounds far in the distance ; and this pro- 

 duced a most welcome feeling of animation, for I knew by 

 the clamor that the game was afoot. The chorus sound- 

 ed exceedingly musical; for the echoing hills and forests 

 modulated every tone to a soft, silvery strain, and wafted 

 it in so many directions that phantom canine voices seem- 

 ed to issue from every tree, shrub, and rock. The cries 

 were heard all over the hills, apparently far away ; but 

 they soon began to approach, and I became on the alert 

 immediately. In what seemed to be only a period of ten 

 minutes, the chorus swelled into a grand volume that 

 echoed through the forest from end to end, as if hundreds 

 of dogs were giving tongue at the same moment. Onward 

 it rolled like the peals of some organ in a massive cathe- 

 dral; now far, now near; now here, now there. While 

 listening to it in the most interested and anxious manner, 

 I was surprised to hear it cease suddenly, and was wonder- 

 ing Avhat could have caused it, when the detonations of sev- 

 eral rifles and shot-guns, which came crackling through the 

 forest, gave me the explanation. A few moments later, and 

 the hounds emerged on my run -way, weary and bedrag- 

 gled ; and I could see by this that they must have chased 

 more than one deer during their long absence. 



Several of them were missing; and thinking they would 

 soon come up, I waited half an hour or more for them, not- 

 withstanding the many horn-blasts that came echoing to- 

 ward me, as a signal for a rally. Finding there was no im- 

 mediate prospect that they would appear, I started to re- 

 join my comrades ; but I had not proceeded half a mile be- 

 fore a full-grown doe started out of a clump of hazel and 



