CHAPTER VI.

TONY STRIKES OUT.

There was no doubt about it, something _was_ moving. There was a rise in
the ground a short distance in front of the turkey-blind, and a little
patch of dark sky was visible between the trees. Across this bit of sky
something dark was slowly passing.

"Ye kin see 'most anything in the darkest night," whispered Tony, "ef ye
kin only git the sky behind it. But that's no turkey."

"What do you think it is?" said Harry, softly. "It's big enough for a
turkey."

"Too big," said Tony. "Let's git after it. You slip along the path, and
I'll go round ahead of it. Feel yer way, and don't make no noise if ye
run agin anything. And mind this"--and here Tony spoke in one of the
most impressive of whispers--"don't you fire till yer _dead certain_
what it is."

With this Tony slipped away into the darkness, and Harry, grasping his
gun, set out to feel his way. He felt his way along the path for a short
time, and then he felt his way out of it. Then he crept into a low, soft
place, full of ferns, and out of that he carefully felt his way into a
big bush, where he knocked off his hat. When he found his hat, which
took him some time, he gradually worked himself out into a place where
the woods were a little more open, and there he caught another glimpse
of the sky just at the top of the ridge. There was something dark
against the sky, and Harry watched it for a long time. At last, as it
did not move at all, he came to the conclusion that it must be a bush,
and he was entirely correct. For an hour or two he quietly crept among
the trees, hoping he would either find the thing that was moving or get
back to the turkey-blind. Several times something that he was sure was
an "old har," as hares are often called in Virginia, rushed out of the
bushes near him; and once he heard a quick rustling among the dead
leaves that sounded as if it were made by a black snake, but it might as
well have been a Chinese pagoda on wheels, for all he could see of it.
At last he became very tired, and sat down to rest with his back against
a big tree. There he soon began to nod, and, without the slightest
intention of doing anything of the kind, he went to sleep just as
soundly as if he had been in his bed at home. And this was not at all
surprising, considering the amount of walking and creeping that he had
done that day and night.

When he awoke it was daylight. He sprang to his feet and found he was
very stiff i