Hunting the Mule -Deer in Colorado. 



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ARE YOU LOOKING FOR US? 



hard to believe, but evidently those deer saw me as I began to 

 look for them, and came down through the trees here to inspect me, 

 — to see what I was about, in fact, — and they stood right here and 

 watched me as I passed by on the other side, not a hundred yards 

 away. And then they follow ; yes, here run the tracks, right along 

 the ridge. The rascals have even stopped when I did, measuring 

 their progress with mine. And now I see that the trail has doubled, 

 half the imprints pointing this way, and I begin to suspect still more 

 of their tantalizing cunning. Yes, it is even so. Here they stood 

 and saw my careful inspection of their sleeping apartment, still 

 within easy shooting distance, but partly screened by netted boughs 

 and twigs, and here they turned again and accompanied me down 

 again, retracing their steps ; and just at the point where I began to 

 climb out, they evidently suspected that I was really in earnest, and 

 that they had better go. The direction of their departure was indi- 

 cated by three separate lines of double exclamation points in the 

 snow, beginning about eighteen feet from where the light broke 

 upon me as described, and leading due west. 



