430 RECREATION 



place in the trail where the rattlesnake gar, but greeted the lynx and coyote 



had been, and would not browse near with a snort of contempt. With an- 



where the coyote had tried to drag him other buck, a sixpointer, he sought the 



down. One night he missed his mother deepest recesses of the forest, and to- 



from the band and when she returned gether they took their way to the other 



a month later another fawn trotted by side of the Picachos and selected a new 



her side and played with him in the range high up on the rugged shoulder 



moonlight. of a mountain overlooking the Colorado 



All the summer season they slaked desert. Finding browse in plenty, they 



their thirst in the same old pools, trav- made their beds of dry leaves and pine 



ersed the same familiar trails. Each needles under a gnarled juniper and 



day the forest taught Chati a new les- were careful to have a clear view in all 



son, each day he learned it .thoroughly directions, while they themselves were 



In the fall they sought the same high hidden in the tree's drooping foliage, 

 summits in search of acorn and juniper The dull boom of a hunter's gun 



berries, and again with the patter of the sounded far down the ridge and the 



hail and rain on the pine needles they faint odor of powder smoke came to 



wended their way to the south to reap- them from where a city sportsman and 



pear with the coming of the new spring- his Indian guide were out at the first 



time at their old range in the Picachos. day of the season. Alert, they lay low 



Chati, now a "spike" buck, shed his in their beds, and presently down the 

 antlers for the first time. An inch from wind from above came the faint sound 

 his head a crack appeared, encircling of moccasined feet treading on dry pine 

 each antler, which in a few days fell off, needles, and the queer, strange scent 

 and the stumps were covered with a that Chati had smelt the day the cow- 

 growth of tissue and blood vessels. As pony had chased his mother in the 

 the bony substance of the new antlers arroyo. Noiselessly they arose and 

 formed it was covered with the growth stole softly down the nearby canon, 

 of the tissue. In three weeks they were crossed it and mounted to the opposite 

 in the velvet and in five after much pol- ridge, stopped in an alder thicket, and 

 ishing had hardened with an extra point, cautiously looked back to see the figure 

 He was now a forked buck and found of the Indian with his rifle, stealing to 

 companionship with a band of bucks, the juniper tree. Probably to express 

 many of them boasting more points than his contempt for the Indian's maneuver, 

 he. With the does and fawns they Pronghorn gave vent to two low snorts, 

 would not mingle, instead ranging far This was near his undoing, for how was 

 above them following the retreating he to know that the khaki-clad city 

 snow banks. Every fall saw him dis- sportsman was posted by the Indian in 

 card his gray summer dress for a thick, that very alder thicket, and that the In- i 

 warm, bluish winter coating. Each dian suspected he would cross this 

 spring he grew a new set of antlers with canon and stop there. The report of a j 

 an added point. He became a goodly heavy gun sounded from a dozen rods 

 deer with many an antler mark away, and Pronghorn feeling a stinging 

 on flank and shoulder, tokens of sensation in his hindquarters and fright- 

 many combats with his fellows, ened beyond measure, dashed clear of 

 Lithe, grace in every outline, deep— the thicket and ran, following six-point- 

 chested, he was a forest monarch, er through the scrubby growth of pines, 

 counting full ten prongs on his antlers Three more shots followed them, all 

 of thirty inches spread. The cowboys missed ; but, if possible, the deer ran 

 who caught occasional glimpses of him faster. Up the mountain they fled, 

 came to call him Pronghorn. Timid he through a pass near the summit and 

 was no longer. He had learned to avoid down on the other side, where Prong- 

 the clumsy bear and the soft-footed cou- horn lay down to lick his wound. Luck- 



