How Animals Talk 



heading briskly down into the bay. They passed 

 between my outstretched feet and the water's 

 edge, where the strip of shore was perhaps three 

 yards wide; then they turned in my direction, 

 seeing or smelling nothing, went slowly up the 

 bank and halted at the edge of the woods to the 

 right and a little behind me, so close that I dared 

 not move even my eyes to follow them. I meas- 

 ured the djstance afterward, and found that from 

 their hoof-marks to the cedar root against which 

 I rested was less than eight feet. Imperceptibly 

 I turned for another look, and saw both deer at 

 attention, their heads luckily pointed away from 

 me. They were regarding the big buck intently, 

 as if to question him. They showed no alarm as 

 yet; but they were plainly uneasy, searching the 

 forest on all sides and at times turning to look 

 over my head upon the breathless lake. Every 

 nervous action said that they found something 

 wrong in the air, some hint or taint or warning 

 which they could not define. So they moved 

 alertly into the woods, halting, listening, testing 

 the -air, using all their senses to locate a danger 

 which they had passed and left behind them. 



From such experiences one might reasonably 

 conclude that, like the brooding grouse or the 

 hidden fawn, a motionless man gives off so little 

 scent that the keenest nose is at fault until it 



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