V
The Deer Hunt
That evening they had a feast and turned in to sleep at the usualhour. The night passed without special alarm. Once about daylightSappy called them, saying he believed there was a Bear outside, buthe had a trick of grinding his teeth in his sleep, and the other boystold him that was the Bear he heard.
Yan went around to the mud albums and got some things he couldnot make out and a new mark that gave him a sensation. He drew itcarefully. It was evidently the print of a small sharp hoof. This waswhat he had hungered for so long. He shouted, "Sam--Sam--Sapwood, comehere; here's a _Deer track_."
The boys shouted back, "Ah, what you givin' us now!" "Call off yourDog!" and so forth.
But Yan persisted. The boys were so sure it was a trick that theywould not go for some time, then the sun had risen high, shiningstraight down on the track instead of across, so it became very dim.Soon the winds, the birds and the boys themselves helped to wipe itout. But Yan had his drawing, and persisted in spite of the teasingthat it was true.
At length Guy said aside to Sam: "Seems to me a feller that huntstracks so terrible serious ought to see the critter _some time_.'Tain't right to let him go on sufferin'. _I_ think he ought tosee that Deer. We ought to help him." Here he winked a volley or twoand made signs for Sam to take Yan away.
This was easily done.
"Let's see if your Deer went out by the lower mud album." So theywalked down that way, while Guy got an old piece of sacking, stuffedit with grass, and, hastily tying it in the form of a Deer's head,stuck it on a stick. He put in two flat pieces of wood for ears, tookcharcoal and made two black spots for eyes and one for a nose, thenaround each he drew a ring of blue clay from the bed of the brook.This soon dried and became white. Guy now set up this head in thebushes, and when all was ready he ran swiftly and silently through thewood to find Sam and Yan. He beckoned vigorously and called underhis voice: "Sam--Yan--a Deer! Here's that there Deer that made themtracks, I believe."
Guy would have failed to convince Yan if Sam had not looked so muchinterested. They ran back to the teepee, got their bows and arrows,then, guided by Guy, who, however, kept back, they crawled to where hehad seen the Deer.
"There--there, now, ain't he a Deer? There--see him move!"
Yan's first feeling was a most exquisite thrill of pleasure. It waslike the uplift of joy he had had the time he got his book, but wasstronger. The savage impulse to kill came quickly, and his bow was inhis hand, but he hesitated.
"Shoot! Shoot!" said Sam and Guy.
Yan wondered why _they_ did not shoot. He turned, and in spite ofhis agitation he saw that they were making fun of him. He glanced atthe Deer again, moved up a little closer and saw the trick.
Then they hooted aloud. Yan was a little crestfallen. Oh, it had beensuch an exquisite feeling! The drop was long and hard, but he ralliedquickly.
"I'll shoot your Deer for you," he said, and sent an arrow close underit.
"Well, I kin beat that," and Sam and Guy both fired. Sam's arrow stuckin the Deer's nose. At that he gave a yell; then all shot till thehead was stuck full of arrows, and they returned to the teepee toget dinner. They were still chaffing Yan about the Deer when he saidslowly to Guy:
"Generally you are not so smart as you think you are, but this timeyou're smarter. You've given me a notion."
So after dinner he got a sack about three feet long and stuffed itfull of dry grass; then he made a small sack about two and a half feetlong and six inches thick, but with an elbow in it and pointed at oneend. This he also stuffed with hay and sewed with a bone needle to thebig sack. Next he cut four sticks of soft pine for legs and put theminto the four corners of the big sack, wrapping them with bits ofsacking to be like the rest. Then he cut two ears out of flat sticks;painted black eyes and nose with a ring of white around each, just asSappy had done, but finally added a black spot on each side of thebody, and around that a broad gray hand. Now he had completed whatevery one could see was meant for a Deer.
The other boys helped a little, but not did cease to chaff him.
"Who's to be fooled this time?" asked Guy.
"You," was the answer.
"I'll bet you'll get buck fever the first time you come across it,"chuckled the Head Chief.
"Maybe I will, but you'll all have a chance. Now you fellers stay hereand I'll hide the Deer. Wait till I come back."
So Yan ran off northward with the dummy, then swung around to the eastand hid it at a place quite out of the line that he first took. Hereturned nearly to where he came out, shouting "Ready!"
Then the hunters sallied forth fully armed, and Yan explained: "Firstto find it counts ten and has first shot. If he misses, next one canwalk up five steps and shoot; if he misses, next walks five stepsmore, and so on until the Deer is hit. Then all the shooting must bedone from the place where that arrow was fired. A shot in the heartcounts ten; in the gray counts five; that's a body wound--and a hitoutside of that counts one--that's a scratch. If the Deer gets awaywithout a shot in the heart, then I count twenty-five, and the firstone to find it is Deer for next hunt--twelve shots each is the limit."
The two hunters searched about for a long time. Sam made disparagingremarks about the trail this Deer _did not_ leave, and Guysneaked and peaked in every thicket.
Sappy was not an athlete nor an intellectual giant, but his littlepiggy eyes were wonderfully sharp and clear.
"I see him," he yelled presently, and pointed out the placeseventy-five yards away where he saw one ear and part of the head.
"Tally ten for Sappy," and Yan marked it down.
Guy was filled with pride at his success. He made elaboratepreparation to shoot, remarking, "I could 'a' seen it twicet asfar--if--if--if--it was--if I had a fair chance."
He drew his bow and left fly. The arrow went little more than halfway. So Sam remarked, "Five steps up I kin go. It don't say nothingabout how long the steps?"
"No."
"Well, here goes," and he began the most wonderful Kangaroo hops thathe could do. He covered about thirty feet in those five steps, and byswerving a little aside he got a good view of the Deer. He was nowless than sixty-five yards away. He fired and missed. Now Guy had theright to walk up five steps. He also missed. Finally at thirty yardsSam sent an arrow close past a tree, deep in the Deer's gray flank.
"Bully shot! Body wound! Count five for the Great War Chief. Allshooting from this spot now," said Yan, "and I don't know why Ishouldn't shoot as well as the others."
"Coz you're the Deer and that'd be suicide," was Sam's objection. "Butit's all right. You won't hit."
The objection was not sustained, and Yan tried his luck also. Two orthree shots in the brown of the Deer's haunch, three or four into thetree that stood half way between, but nearly in line, a shot or twointo the nose, then "Hooray!" a shot from Guy right into the Deer'sheart put an end to the chase. Now they went up to draw and count thearrows.
Guy was ahead with a heart shot, ten, a body wound, five, and ascratch, one, that's sixteen, with ten more for finding it--twenty-sixpoints. Sam followed with two body wounds and two scratches--twelvepoints, and Yan one body wound and five scratches--ten points. TheDeer looked like an old Porcupine when they came up to it, and Guy,bursting with triumph, looked like a young Emperor.
"I tell you it takes me to larn you fellers to Deer hunt. I'll betI'll hit him in the heart first thing next time."
"I'll bet you won't, coz you'll be Deer and can't shoot till we bothhave."
Guy thought this the finest game he had ever played. He pranced awaywith the dummy on his back, scheming as he went to make a puzzle forthe others. He hid the Deer in a dense thicket east of the camp, thensneaked around to the west of the camp and yelled "Ready!" They had along, tedious search and had to give it up.
"Now what to do? Who counts?" asked the Woodpecker.
"When Deer escapes it counts twenty-five," replied the inventer of thegame; and again Guy was ahead.
"This is the bulliest game
I ever seen" was his ecstatic remark.
"Seems to me there's something wrong; that Deer ought to have atrail."
"That's so," assented Yan. "Wonder if he couldn't drag an old root!"
"If there was snow it'd be easy."
"I'll tell you, Sam; we'll tear up paper and leave a paper trail."
"Now you're talking." So all ran to camp. Every available scrap ofwrapping paper was torn up small and put in a "scent bag."
Since no one found the Deer last time, Guy had the right to hide itagain.
He made a very crooked trail and a very careful hide, so that the boysnearly walked onto the Deer before they saw it about fifteen yardsaway. Sam scored ten for the find. He fired and missed. Yan nowstepped up his five paces and fired so hastily that he also missed.Guy now had a shot at it at five yards, and, of course, hit the Deerin the heart. This succession of triumphs swelled his head nearly tothe bursting point, and his boasting passed all bounds. But it nowbecame clear that there must be a limit to the stepping up. So the newrule was made, "No stepping up nearer than fifteen paces."
The game grew as they followed it. Its resemblance to real hunting wasvery marked. The boys found that they could follow the trail, or sweepthe woods with their eyes as they pleased, and find the game, but thewisest way was a combination. Yan was too much for the trail, Samtoo much for the general lookout, but Guy seemed always in luck. Hislittle piglike eyes took in everything, and here at length he found adepartment in which he could lead. It looked as though little pig-eyedGuy was really cut out for a hunter. He made a number of very cleverhidings of the Deer. Once he led the trail to the pond, then, across,and right opposite he put the Deer in full view, so that they saw itat once in the open; they were obliged either to shoot across thepond, or step farther away round the edge, or step into the deepwater, and again Guy scored. It was found necessary to bar hiding theDeer on a ridge and among stones, because in one case arrows whichmissed were lost in the bushes and in the other they were broken.
They played this game so much that they soon found a new difficulty.The woods were full of paper trails, and there was no means ofdeciding which was the old and which the new. This threatened to endthe fun altogether. But Yan hit on the device of a different colourof paper. This gave them a fresh start, but their supply was limited.There was paper everywhere in the woods now, and it looked as thoughthe game was going to kill itself, when old Caleb came to pay them avisit. He always happened round as though it was an accident, but theboys were glad to see him, as he usually gave some help.
"Ye got some game, I see," and the old man's eye twinkled as he notedthe dummy, now doing target duty on the forty-yard range. "Looks likethe real thing. Purty good--purty good." He chuckled as he learnedabout the Deer hunt, and a sharp observer might have discerned aslight increase of interest when he found that it was not Sam Raftenthat was the "crack" hunter.
"Good fur you, Guy Burns. Me an' your Paw hev hunted Deer together onthis very crik many a time."
When he learned the difficulty about the scent, he said "Hm," andpuffed at his pipe for awhile in silence. Then at length:
"Say, Yan, why don't you and Guy get a bag o' wheat or Injun corn forscent: that's better than paper, an' what ye lay to-day is all claredup by the birds and Squirrels by to-morrow."
"Bully!" shouted Sam. (He had not been addressed at all, but he wasnot thin-skinned.) Within ten minutes he had organized another "Whitemassacree"--that is, a raid on the home barn, and in half an hour hereturned with a peck of corn.
"Now, lemme be Deer," said Caleb. "Give me five minutes' start, thenfollow as fast as ye like. I'll show ye what a real Deer does."
He strode away bearing the dummy, and in five minutes as they set outon the trail he came striding back again. Oh, but that seemed a longrun. The boys followed the golden corn trail--a grain every ten feetwas about all they needed now, they were so expert. It was a straightrun for a time, then it circled back till it nearly cut itself again(at X, page 298). The boys thought it did so, and claimed the right toknow, as on a real Deer trail you could tell. So Caleb said, "No, itdon't cut the old trail." Where, then, did it go? After beating about,Sam said that the trail looked powerful heavy, like it might bedouble.
"Bet I know," said Guy. "He's doubled back," which was exactly what hedid do, though Caleb gave no sign. Yan looked back on the trail andfound where the new one had forked. Guy gave no heed to the groundonce he knew the general directions. He ran ahead (toward Y), so didSam, but Guy glanced back to Yan on the trail to make sure of theline.
They had not gone far beyond the nearest bushes before Yan foundanother quirk in the trail. It doubled back at Z. He unravelled thedouble, glanced around, and at O he plainly saw the Deer lying onits side in the grass. He let off a triumphant yell, "Yi, yi, yi,_Deer_!" and the others came running back just in time to see Yansend an arrow straight into its heart.