THE STRANGE BUCK. 313 



come, it was in vain to think of getting at them 

 thus : so we concluded to wait till their feeding time 

 in the evening. AVe were leaning on the rails of 

 the buck-pen, rails put up to keep cattle from the 

 deer when fed with hay, — rather a useless precaution 

 in the neglected state of the " venerie," and consi- 

 dering the deer never got any, — and were thinking 

 over the haunts we had visited, and if it were possible 

 that they had escaped us. We were both leaning 

 over the rail and looking on the ground, when a 

 hollow sound of deers' feet struck my ear, and, turning 

 my eyes to the right, I had but just time to reach 

 out my hand to the keeper's shoulder to give him a 

 pull, and we both sunk flat on our faces together. 

 There they were — three goodly bucks, the stranger, 

 Avith two of the browse deer, trotting and capering 

 at play, and coming right upon us. There was not 

 even so much as a blade of long grass nor a thistle 

 to hide us ; so all we had to do was to lie flat, hide 

 our faces and hands, and look as much like heaps of 

 dirt or dead fern as possible. I ventured to raise my 

 brow, my chin still on mother earth, out of curiosity, 

 to see what the deer would do. The wind being 

 favourable, they did not scent us, and I saw them 

 repeatedly look over us for men in upright positions. 

 Luckily they halted at about fifty yards' distance, 

 and Hall looked me, for he dared not speak to know- 

 ledge of the stranger. They were all good bucks 

 perhaps one of the browse bucks was the fattest, but 

 the stranger had the largest frame, and, as Hall prayed 

 me to kill him, I resolved to accomplish it if possible. 

 It was an anxious moment: he turned his well-rounded 

 side at fifty yards for a beautiful body-shot ; but I no 

 more dared to lift the rifle in that exposed situation. 



