278 HUNTING TRIPS 



as it proved, as she stood quartering and not 

 broadside to me. No fairer chance could 

 ever fall to the lot of a hunter ; but, to my 

 intense chagrin, she bounded off at the re- 

 port as if unhurt, disappearing instantly. 

 My companion had now come up, and we 

 ran up a rise of ground, and crouched down 

 beside a great block of sandstone, in a posi- 

 tion from which we overlooked the whole 

 ravine or hollow. After some minutes of 

 quiet watchfulness, we heard a twig snap 

 the air was so still we could hear any thing 

 some rods up the ravine, but below us ; and 

 immediately afterward a buck stole out of the 

 cedars. Both of us fired at once, and with a 

 convulsive spring he rolled over backward, 

 one bullet having gone through his neck, and 

 the other probably mine having broken a 

 hind leg. Immediately afterward, another 

 buck broke from the upper edge of the cover, 

 near the top of the plateau, and, though I 

 took a hurried shot at him, bounded over the 

 crest, and was lost to sight. 



We now determined to go down into the 



