1 7 4 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



yet thoroughly alarmed. The buck was behind, and I 

 held just ahead of him. He plunged to the shot, but 

 went off over the hill-crest. When I had panted up to 

 the ridge I found him dead just beyond. 



One of the antelope I killed while I was out on foot 

 toward nightfall, a couple of miles from the wagon. I 

 saw the prongbuck quite half a mile off, and though I 

 dropped at once I was uncertain whether he had seen 

 me. He was in a little hollow or valley. A long, smooth- 

 ly sloping plateau led up to one edge of it. Across this 

 plateau I crawled, and when I thought I was near the 

 run I ventured slowly to look up, and almost immediately 

 saw vaguely through the tops of the long grasses what I 

 took to be the head and horns of the buck, looking in 

 my direction. There was no use in going back, and I 

 dropped flat on my face again and crawled another hun- 

 dred yards, until it was evident that I was on the rise 

 from which the plateau sank into the shallow valley be- 

 yond. Raising my head inch by inch, I caught sight of 

 the object toward which I had been crawling, and after 

 a moment's hesitation recognized it as a dead sunflower, 

 the stalks and blossoms so arranged as to be in a V shape. 

 Completely puzzled, I started to sit up, when by sheer 

 good luck I caught sight of the real prongbuck, still feed- 

 ing, some three hundred yards off, and evidently unaware 

 of my presence. It was feeding toward a slight hill to 

 my left. I crept off until behind this, and then walked 

 up until I was in line with a big bunch of weeds on its 

 shoulder. Crawling on all-fours to the weeds, I peeped 

 through and saw the prongbuck still slowly feeding my 



