88 ADIRONDAC. 



By this time I had got beyond the nervous point, 

 and had come round to perfect coolness and com- 

 posure again, but preternaturally vigilant and keen. I 

 was read)' for any disclosures ; not a sound was heard. 

 In a few moments the trees along-shore were faintly 

 visible. Every object put on the shape of a gigantic 

 deer. A large rock looked just ready to bound 

 away. The dry limbs of a prostrate tree were surely 

 his antlers. 



But what are those two luminous spots ? Need the 

 reader be told what they were ? In a moment the 

 head of a real deer became outlined ; then his neck 

 and foreshoulders * then his whole body. There he 

 stood, up to his knees in the water, gazing fixedly at 

 us, apparently arrested in the movement of putting his 

 head down for a lily-pad, and evidently thinking it was 

 some new-fangled moon sporting about there. " Let 

 him have it," said my prompter, — and the crash came. 

 There was a scuffle in the water, and a plunge in the 

 woods. "He's gone," said I. "Wait a moment," 

 said the guide, " and I will show you." Rapidly run- 

 ning the canoe ashore, we sprang out, and holding the 

 jack aloft, explored the vicinity by its light. There, 

 over the logs and brush, I caught the glimmer of those 

 luminous spots again. But, poor thing ! there was 

 little need of the second shot, which was the unkindest 

 cut of all, for the deer had already fallen to the ground, 

 and was fast expiring. The success was but a very 

 indifferent one, after all, as the victim turned out to be 



