THE MULE DEEK. 153 



we saw each other at the same moment. Had it been a doe 

 or a yearling, it would have sprung from its bed in an 

 instant; but an old buck, either from a spirit of indolence 

 or defiance, will often wait to take a steady look, which 

 seals his doom. Raising my rifle slowly in another direc- 

 tion, then swinging it swiftly sidewise, I fired through the 

 grass, at the point of his shoulder. He never rose. He 

 rolled on his side, and when I came up— and it was" not six 

 rods off — his tongue was out, and his eye was glazing in 

 death. He made one faint effort to reach me with his great 

 horns, fell back, and died. 



He was a trophy indeed — six or eight years old by his 

 antlers, in perfect condition, as rutting-time had scarcely 

 begun, and yet his neck showed signs of the coming time. 

 As I should judge, in averaging with the common Deer, he 

 was from a fourth to a fifth larger than the largest of that 

 variety. I was shooting, in those days, a 100-grain Sharp's 

 shell, 405 of lead, and I do not remember ever finding the 

 ball in a Deer' s body. This shot had broken both shoul- 

 ders, the heavy- spinal process between them, had pene- 

 trated that part of the lungs lying there, and had gone out 

 at the other side as clear as it had entered at the first. It is 

 the most deadly cartridge I have ever found, for a rifle. 



Here was a job for me! It was like tackling a steer in a 

 butcher's shop, and is really the butcher's part in hunting. 

 My son was out of sight, and I must do it for myself. 

 I knew how, but I always let a comrade do it when I 

 could, rendering such incidental help as I might; but now 

 there's no help for it. Rolling my sleeves up to my 

 shoulders, I plunged in; and when twenty minutes had 

 elapsed, and I looked at myself, with my job completed, I 

 seemed to myself like a genuine man of the shambles. This 

 is the really unpleasant part of Deer-hunting; but it would 

 not be of earthly nature if it had not its drawbacks. 



Stuffing boughs between the thighs to keep out the mag- 

 pies, and tying my handkerchief to the horns to keep off 

 the coyotes, I rubbed off my stained arms to the shoulders 

 as best I could (for I was fifteen hundred feet above any 



