EARLY DAY STORIES. 191 



deer was a big doe, lying down, breast toward me. The 

 shot went too low, just cutting out a bunch of hair at the 

 lower point of the brisket, the bullet burying itself in the 

 sand underneath the deer. They all went over the hill in 

 an instant. Among them was a very large buck with wide 

 spreading horns. I did not see these deer again, but going 

 on I got two shots at white tail deer, missing one clear, and 

 sHghtly wounding another. 



By this time it was well past noon, and the day being 

 so disagreeable I turned back toward camp. I found too 

 that I had only one cartridge left. At that time I did not 

 own a cartridge belt, but carried the cartridges loose in my 

 pockets. The rifle used was not a magazine gun but the 

 single-shot, breech-loading Sharps carbine mentioned in 

 some of the previous articles. I think it was the only time 

 in all my hunting experiences that I failed to take along 

 ammunition enough to last through the day. 



On the way back to camp I got to thinking about the 

 two black tail bucks killed at the little blow-out, and all at 

 once it came to my mind that perhaps there might have been 

 three deer instead of two. Changing my course slightly I 

 went back to look the ground over again. On arriving at 

 the rim of the blow-out, sure enough there were fresh tracks 

 where a deer had gone out at a low place on the southwest 

 side of the blow-out. Following the tracks in the sand there 

 soon began to be blood on either side, and within a hundred 

 steps the deer was seen lying down. He jumped up and 

 started to run, but it was plain that he was badly hurt. I 

 gave him the last cartridge, which only made a flesh wound, 

 but did not help matters at all. I studied it over a little while 

 as to what it was best to do, whether to leave him for the 

 present, or to run him down afoot, and decided to try the 

 latter. Taking off my coat and leaving it with the gun I 

 started in on the race. I had read that the Apache Indians, 



