Search e-Books

The forest was open and park-like. There were no fallen trees or evidences of
fire. Presently he came to a wide glade in the midst of which Nagger and the
pack-mustang were grazing with a herd of deer. The size of the latter amazed
Slone. The deer he had hunted back on the Sevier range were much smaller than
these. Evidently these were mule deer, closely allied to the elk. They were so
tame they stood facing him curiously, with long ears erect. It was sheer
murder to kill a deer standing and watching like that, but Slone was out of
meat and hungry and facing a long, hard trip. He shot a buck, which leaped
spasmodically away, trying to follow the herd, and fell at the edge of the
glade. Slone cut out a haunch, and then, catching the horses, he returned to
camp, where he packed and saddled, and at once rode out on the dim trail.
The wildness of the country he was entering was evident in the fact that as he
passed the glade where he had shot the deer a few minutes before, there were
coyotes quarreling over the carcass.


Pages:
90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114