266 SPOET IN NORTH AMERICA. 



friends, and strayed apart from tlieni about three 

 miles, when Black and Stop (with whom I could 

 scarcely keep pace) started a magnificent antelope, 

 though unfortunately at a long distance before them. 

 From the summit of the hill which 1 had reached 

 I could see before me a gaping ravine at right 

 angles with the stream. I galloped my horse 

 towards it, in the uncertain hope that the antelope 

 would try and make his escape in that direction ; 

 and I had scarcely time to conceal myself and my 

 horse behind a clump of stunted lentisk trees and 

 to dismount, when the two spiral horns of the an- 

 telope became visible against the blue sky, and I 

 could see the animal bounding rapidly towards me, 

 with the two dogs at his heels. 



" That's all right," quoth I to myself, — selling 

 the antelope's skin before he was within gun- 

 shot. 



When the antelope had got within two hundred 

 yards of me, I saw three little puffs of smoke, and 

 heard three shots, but none of them had touched 

 him, for he swept on scornfully and at a tremendous 

 pace. ]My heart beat with emotion, as I took a 

 careful aim at the antelope, ready to press the 

 trigger, when, from within twenty paces of my place 

 of concealment, came a fourth shot, and my much 

 coveted prize, which I had regarded already as my 

 own, rolled upon the grass dead, and an Indian 

 sprang out of a clump of cotton bushes with that 



