60 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



trees grew closer together, and while going between two of them 

 the Doctor was caught by his gun, which he held crosswise before 

 him on the saddle, and was swept off his horse to the ground. 

 "There's a ten strike!" called out Jackson, as we rushed by. 

 Closer still we came to the deer, every dog stretched to his utmost 

 length, every rider bending to his horse's mane; Mike was just 

 raising his rifle to his shoulder to shoot, when without a sign the 

 big buck fell head first to the ground, and rolled over and over 

 with the impetus of the chase. His heart had broken in the 

 desperate burst just within reach of his lair, in whose close covert 

 the doe, with one long bound, was lost. Up came the dogs and 

 horses so fast they ran over the game, and crowded and 

 jostled together as they pulled up, as a wave that meets a rock on 

 the sandy beach. Then there was dismounting, and whipping off 

 the dogs, and a search for the wounds in our quarry. Two buck- 

 shot, in the thick part of the neck from behind, came from the 

 Doctor's second barrel. 



" Where is the Doctor ? here is his horse. Oh ! there he comes 

 limping along rather sore with his fall." A laugh and a sly joke 

 were all the consolation we had to offer him. Two more buck- 

 shot in the right side, close together ; that is Lou Jackson's shot. 

 They were the only ones of the party using shot guns. None of 

 the shots were heavy enough to kill the deer, though altogether 

 they had broken him down in the chase. We wound a horn to 

 tell the drivers we left behind our whereabouts, and putting the 

 buck on one of the negroes' horses, and coupling the dogs to keep 

 them from entering the swamp, we turned back the way we 

 came. 



"Now for the does we left behind," said Jackson. "How 

 many were there, sir ?" 



* I saw two bucks and four does," said the Doctor. 



" Fudge ! those were the same deer we have been chasing, only 

 your people turned them back into the hummock two or three 

 times without killing them." 



" I killed one," said I. 



"Where is it?" 



" It fell in the bushes." 



