AN ABLE MISSOURI LIAR. 35 



the side of the mountain. Trees and grass were heavy 

 with water and he was soon soaking wet. While 

 going carefully through the underbrush, making as 

 little noise as possible, he was suddenly startled by a 

 noise about twenty-five yards in front of him. A 

 deer jumped out and ran with long bounds for about 

 fifty yards, when it stopped and looked back. Just a 

 small portion of the back was visible through the 

 underbrush. Taking careful aim he fired, and mak- 

 ing his way through the bushes found that he had 

 broken the back of a doe. Her hair was in fine con- 

 dition and in everyway she was a splendid specimen. 

 The old signal-yell was given, and answering shouts 

 came up from the valley as Harvey and the boys 

 with Reuben hastened to get the quarry. 



As Harvey had occasion to go to Las Vegas, Dyche 

 sent a good load of venison to the party at Camp 

 Montezuma. At Las Vegas Harvey picked up a 

 man who said he was a Missourian and brought him 

 along to work for the summer. According to the 

 Missourian 's story, he was the greatest deer-hunter 

 that ever lived. He had killed twenty-five the win- 

 ter before. Twenty-four of them were shot through 

 the heart. One of them, a big buck, had been out of 

 sight except the head, and its neck was broken just 

 back of the ears. So many stories like these were told 

 by the Missourian that Dyche and Harvey took him 

 out on the mountain to hunt deer. Passing down a 

 meadow with the Missourian about two hundred 

 yards ahead, two deer suddenly jumped up some 

 forty yards in front of the deer-slayer. They stood 

 looking at him and he returned the stare. At last 



