358 AVILD SPORTS IN THE FAR WEST. 



R-efreshed and strengthened by the food, I stirred 

 the fire to a bright glow, and, again on good terms with 

 myself and the whole world, I sat patient and watchful 

 under the towering flames. Nothing stirred till about 

 one in the morning, when I again heard a light meas- 

 ured step, and a doe appeared coming straight toAvards 

 me. She had not the shghtest suspicion of danger, but 

 stood staring at the fire w^ith clear shining eyes, hardly 

 six paces from the stand. She was with young ; still I 

 must have a hunting shirt, and I had raised the death- 

 dealing tube, when three more deer arrived on the 

 scene, one of them a fine buck. They passed round 

 the lick, and then stopped about ten or eleven paces 

 behind the doe, who never once moved from her place. 

 Turning the rifle a little aside, I fired at the buck, who 

 bounded high in the air and fell dead, the doe flying 

 oiF like the w ind. She was so close that she must have 

 been singed by the powder. 



Deathlike stillness again prevailed. I was noddmg 

 a little, but w^aking up suddenly and looking before me, 

 I saw two glowing eyes shining through the dark- 

 ness, and soon afterwards descried the whole form of a 

 deer. He came straight towards me, stood for a 

 moment, turned a Httle aside, and disappeared after 

 the crack of the rifle. I gave myself no concern about 

 him, but reloaded and w^atched for more. Wliip-poor- 

 wiU had already begun his monotonous song, which 

 regularly resounds through the woods shortly before 

 the first gleam of day, when I again heard the meas- 

 ured tread of a deer on the dry leaves, and he re- 

 ceived my ball just as the gray dawn was appearing. 

 As it grew lighter I found him lying dead on his 



