202 THE GULE COAST OF FLORIDA. 



palmetto. Jack whispered to me, "Shoot and I'll take the 

 second shot," at the same time bringing his Winchester to 

 his shoulder. There was but a small portion of the animal's 

 body visible through the leaves. I drew a bead on that por- 

 tion and let go. She doubled up and started lo run. At the 

 second jump Jack fired and she increased her speed. We let 

 the dog loose, and catching sight of the animal he pressed 

 her closely. After running perhaps a hundred yards she- 

 raised her tail and bounded away as if unhurt. 



Many deer hunters claim that a wounded deer always runs 

 with its tail down, and would at this point have decided that 

 we had both missed. But for my own part I knew this could 

 not be so. I knew my aim was sure and that my little 

 "hunter's pet" never failed to do its work perfectly when 

 held correctly. Jack was equally certain of his aim, and, 

 besides, the deer had shown plainly at first that it was badly 

 hurt. So we followed the direction the deer and dog had 

 taken and after running perhaps half a mile found our deer 

 lying prostrate with old Rover standing proudly over it. 

 We found upon examination that my ball had passed through 

 the animal's loins and that Jack's had broken one hind leg 

 at the knee and fractured the other just below. When we 

 found her this fractured leg was also broken, but we were 

 unable to decide whether she had broken it in running or 

 whether the dog had wrenched and broken it after he caught 

 her. At any rate we were sure the ball could not have 

 broken the bone outright, for she could not have run ten 

 feet with both hind legs broken so high up. 



To dress the deer, cut the feet out and tie the skin of tlu- 

 legs together was but the work of a few minutes. Then we 

 debated briefly whether we should return home at once or 

 continue on our course to the creek; but as it was only a 

 mile distant and as the deer was not a large one we decided 



