280 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



said Graham, " that 's just a likely place for a mule 

 deer buck ! " The words were scarcely out of his 

 mouth when one of these animals which had prob- 

 ably neither seen nor winded us, but only heard Gra- 

 ham's voice rose from the edge of the scrub, and, 

 trotting a few paces forwards, stood still listening. 

 He was not fifty yards from iis, but I could not shoot, 

 as with the exception of his head and horns, the whole 

 of his body was hidden by the stem of a large cotton- 

 wood tree. 



I stood quite still, holding my rifle at full cock, 

 ready to fire the instant he came out from behind 

 the tree. But when he presently moved forward at a 

 slow walk, he at first kept the tree between us. Then 

 suddenly he turned and went away obliquely, in a series 

 of jumps, as is the custom of these deer. As he had to 

 go some twenty yards over open ground, and was not 

 more than seventy yards away from me when I fired, 

 he gave me, of course, as easy a shot as one could 

 expect to get at a jumping deer ; but his pace was so 

 uneven that I fully expected to miss him. He did 

 not flinch at the shot, but went jumping along until 

 he disappeared in the cottonwood scrub ; and though 

 I had thought my sight was on him when I pulled 

 the trigger, I never heard the bullet thud and was 

 fully prepared to find I had missed. Graham, how- 

 ever, said the buck was hit, and on reaching his track 

 a very heavy blood spoor showed that such was the 

 case, and we found him lying dead within fifty yards 



