190 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



that ravine yonder where the brush appears scarce four 

 feet high. And yet you saw it not. A second or two 

 more and you would not have seen it at all. And 

 even now you see no head, no legs, no body; only a 

 small target, and that fast fading in the brush upon 

 the level ground. 



How brightly gleams the sun upon the front sight 

 of your rifle as it comes up! And what a thrill of 

 satisfaction you feel as you see it glimmer in bright 

 relief full upon the center of the fading white! You 

 pull the trigger, but no sound of striking bullet comes 

 back. You go and look, but there is no sign of stum- 

 bling, plunging, or jumping. The deer has evidently 

 walked on quite unconcerned. 



You shot toward the sun; that is all. You must be 

 careful how you see your front sight too plainly when 

 the sun is directly in your eyes; a point we will con- 

 sider again. 



But what about the other one ? Did it go off with 

 this one ? 



Perhaps it did. Examine the track and see. 



You follow the track a few yards in the course it 

 has taken, but observe no sign of more than one deer. 

 Turning backward toward the basin, you catch sight 

 of a deer some two hundred yards away gayly bound- 

 ing up the main valley near where you first started 

 the four. 



You naturally wonder if that could not possibly be 

 the other deer that was hiding. But you might better 

 wonder if it could possibly be any other one, so close 

 to where you first started them, and in full bound too. 

 I did not tell you to lose sight of the basin while look- 

 ing for the other one's track. You could have found 

 it just as well by looking down the side of the basin 



