JACK-SHOOTING IN A FOGGY NIGHT. 189 



he liad inadvertently loosened his grasp on it. 

 Be this 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 brought out with great 

 emphasis. He averaged about one word to a jump. 

 If another got partially out, it was suddenly and 

 ruthlessly snapped off in mid utterance. The 

 jsult of his efforts to express himself reached my 

 irs very much in this shape : " Jump — will — 

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

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



-f. — Jump-p-p — be D-D-DAMNED — I 'VE — 



)t — you-u-u." 



When the contest would have ended, what 



rould have been the result had it continued, 



rhether the buck or the guide would have come 



the winner, it is not easy to say. Nor is it 



lecessary to speculate, for the close was speedily 



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



led off some dozen jumps out of the circle of 



[ight, and I was beginning to think that he had 



shaken himself loose from his enemy, when all at 



once he emerged from the fog with Martin still 



streaming behind him, and made straight for the 



river. Never did I see a buck vault higher or 



project himself farther in successive leaps. The 



Saranacer was too much put to it to articulate a 



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



