AND OTHER SKETCHES 265 



Many a glorious run I've had with him. Talk about 

 keenness of scent ! I've known him, lying flat on the bot- 

 tom of my canoe, a light blanket thrown over him to 

 ensure his stillness, and one morning when ballasted that 

 way, I was paddling up big Red Stone, in Haliburton dis- 

 trict, fully a quarter of a mile from the wooded shore ; 

 suddenly the head emerged from the blanket, the nostrils 

 quivered with excitement and I knew that Smoke had 

 scented a deer. Cautioning him in a low whisper, I 

 rounded a point two hundred yards to the west, quietly 

 landed, put on his collar and entered the woods. 



We had not circled more than fifty yards before his 

 head went into the air, his whole body quivered with 

 expectation, and had I not loosened him, he would have 

 pulled me over the fallen log his forepaws rested on. 

 In less than two minutes the roar that echoed over the 

 hills told me it was a hot scent and Smoke not far behind 

 his game. So quick was he at his work and so fast did he 

 keep what proved to be a big fat buck on the move, that 

 the latter, panting from his swift run, speedily circled 

 back to the shore of the lake from which he had been 

 driven. 



He broke cover within one hundred yards of where I 

 stood, and a lucky shot from my Winchester dropped him 

 at the waterside. So quick had been the killing that two 

 of the party who had been dispatched to the nearest 

 watches had not even time to reach their stands before 

 three shots in rapid succession warned them that the 

 morning hunt in that direction was over, and the signal 

 speedily brought them in. 



The head of the big buck killed that November morn- 

 ing on the shore of big Red Stone occupies a conspicuous 

 place on the wall of my den, and every time my eyes rest 

 on those gracefully spread antlers and massive neck of 

 one of the heaviest deer killed in the north woods, 

 thoughts of Smoke creep into the mind and memory of 

 his tragic death in the wilds of Temiscaming saddens 

 me. Now I will tell you how it happened. 



