200 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



But stop! Do not move an inch until he is out of 

 sight. There he disappears. Now be quick but quiet 

 and get on the neck of that ridge he went over just 

 where it joins the main body of the hills. 



You reach the neck of the ridge, and dropping be- 

 hind a large rock take off your hat and peep cautious- 

 ly over the rock. And soon you see on your side of 

 the ravine a long low bit of yellowish brown moving 

 through the brush some seventy yards away, with the 

 tips of a pair of horns occasionally surging through 

 the brush in front of it. The brown is moving toward 

 you too, and will pass you some thirty yards down 

 your side of the ridge and near the bottom of the 

 ravine. And you softly ejaculate " Mine." 



But beware, dear friend, how you too quickly say 

 " Mine." You know not whether a deer is yours un- 

 til you stand astride of it with your knife. And 

 and be a little cautious even then; for sometimes 

 when the point of the knife has pricked the skin of a 

 fallen deer, hunter, rifle, knife, and deer have radiated 

 to the four points of the compass almost as suddenly 

 as if a keg of powder had exploded in their midst. 



And now where is your bit of brown? You took 

 your eyes from it to look at the place where you in- 

 tended to bag it, and when your eyes would return to 

 it, behold! it is gone. Yet none of that brush is over 

 four feet high and not at all thick. 



Now do not get excited, worried, or anxious; for if 

 you do you will yield to hurry and flurry, and then it 

 will be a running shot or none. The buck is still 

 there; he probably suspects not your presence; he 

 cannot get out of the ravine without your seeing him; 

 and if you have patience you may still get a good 

 standing shot. 



