AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 293 



neatly severed by the bullet. They were two remark- 

 able shots. 



After dressing this deer I returned to the old burn 

 in which I had killed the doe in the morning, and 

 took a stand on a high, flat-top stump, which com- 

 manded a good view of a large tract of surrounding 

 country. I felt certain that the young buck that 

 was with her when I killed her would come back 

 toward night to look up his companion, for he prob- 

 ably did not realize that she was dead. I stood 

 within thirty yards of her carcass and for an hour 

 kept a close watch in every direction, turning slowly 

 from one position to another, so that any game that 

 came in sight could not detect the movement and 

 would, if seeing me at all, consider me one of the 

 numerous old high stumps with which the landscape 

 was marked. Toward sundown a large, handsome 

 buck came out of the green woods half a mile away, 

 walking deliberately toward me. I could see only 

 a proud head and spreading antlers, and an occa- 

 sional glimpse of his silvery -gray back as he marched 

 with stately but cautious tread through the dry 

 weeds. He stopped frequently to look and listen 

 for danger, or the coy maidens of his kind, of whom 

 he was in search. Oh, how I longed for a shot at 

 him! With bated breath and throbbing heart I 

 watched his slow progress across the open country. 

 But, alas! the wind (what little there was) was 

 wrong. When within about 200 yards of me he 

 scented me and bounded squarely sidewise as 

 though a rattlesnake had bitten him, uttering at the 

 same time one of those peculiarly thrilling whistles 

 that might have been heard in the stillness of the 



