JACK- SHOOTING IN A FOGGY NIGHT. 189 



he had inadvertently loosened his grasp on it. 

 Be tliis as it may, Martin's mouth was at last 

 opened, and out of it were projected some of the 

 most extraordinary expressions I ever heard. His 

 sentences were singularly detached. Even his words 

 were widely separated, but brouglit out with great 

 emphasis. He averaged about one word to a junij). 

 If another got partially out, it was suddenly and 

 ruthlessly snapped off in mid utterance. The 

 result of his efforts to express himself reached my 

 ears very much in this shape : " Jump — ivill — 

 you — be-e — damned — I 've-e — got — you ! I '11 

 — hold-d — ON — till — your — ta-i-1 — comes — 

 off-f. — Jmnp-p-2J — be d-d-damned — I 've — 

 got — you-u-u." 



"\Mien the contest would have ended, what 

 would have lieen the result liad it continued, 

 whether the buck or the guide would have come 

 off' tlie winner, it is not easy to say. Nor is it 

 necessary to speculate, for the close was speedily 

 reached, and in an unlooked-for manner. The deer 

 had led off some dozen jumps out of the circle of 

 Light, and I was beginning to think that he had 

 shaken himself loose from liis enemy, when all at 

 once he emerged from the fog with jNTartin still 

 streaming behind him, and made straight for tlie 

 river. Never did I see a Inick vault higher or 

 project himself farther in successive leaps. Tlie 

 oaranacer was too much put to it to articulate a 

 Nvord ; only a series of grunts, as he was twitched 



