THE STILL-HUNTER'S CARDINAL VIRTUE. 211 



it moves around the bush. You make a detour and 

 get behind a little rise of ground some eighty or 

 a hundred yards away. Looking cautiously over you 

 see just the tip of a horn shining through the weeds. 

 You draw up your rifle-sight about eighteen inches 

 below the horn and fire. 



A combination of pirouette, hornpipe, and double 

 shuffle takes place for an instant by the bush, and 

 then just as you think the deer is about to fall he 

 straightens himself out and scuds away in line with 

 the bush. Your ball glanced the base of his horn 

 and stunned him a much better shot than there was 

 any prospect of your making. And if you had crept 

 up behind the bush he would probably have run 

 straight away from it and have left it directly in your 

 line of vision. 



And now let us see what patience could have ac- 

 complished. The wind was blowing from him to you 

 and he could not smell you. He had not seen or 

 heard you, and you could have remained both quiet 

 and unseen behind that little rise until he rose again. 

 As it is the middle of the afternoon and the day is 

 not very hot, he would probably have risen in less 

 than an hour. And he would then have been in no 

 hurry to go, and would have been as likely to come 

 your way as to go any other. And suppose you had 

 waited until sundown. Would not the game be worth 

 so cheap a candle ? 



But we must hasten along and suppose our cases 

 fast. You have been tracking some deer and track 

 them to a huddle of gullies, basins, etc., all filled with 

 brush. You fail to see one or jump any of them out 

 of it. You make a circle around and find no tracks 

 leading out. Failing to start anything from the edge 



