histle, soft and downy. The
sight of it was too much for him. He was very weary, his limbs fairly
ached with fatigue, and for the last hour his spread hoof had given him
a good deal of pain. His enemy was nowhere in sight, and in spite of his
misgivings he sank down on the couch with a sigh of comfort, and began
to chew his cud.

The judge was about ready to give up for the night when he, too, came
upon that fallen maple. He saw the wall of earth and twisted roots, with
the deer-tracks leading toward it; and slowly, softly, silently, he
crept down toward the Buck's shelter.

There was no wind that evening, and the woods seemed perfectly still;
but now, unnoticed by the judge, a faint, faint puff came wandering
among the trees, as if on purpose to warn the deer of his danger.
Suddenly he started, sniffed the air, and was up and away like a
race-horse--not leaping nor bounding now, but running low, with his head
down, and his antlers laid back on his neck. If he had been in the cedar
swamp he would have escaped unhurt, but up in the hardwood the trees do
not stand so close, and one can see a little farther. The judge fired
before he could get out of sight, and he dropped with three ribs broken
and a bullet lodged behind his right shoulder. He was up again in an
instant, but there were blood-stains on the snow where he had lain, and
this time the judge did not follow. Instead of giving chase he went
straight back to the lumber-camp, feeling almost as sure of that new
pair of antlers as if he had carried them with him.

The Buck ran a little way, with his flag lowered and the blood spurting,
and then he lay down to rest, just as the judge knew he would. The
bleeding soon stopped, but it left him very weak and tired, and that
night was the most miserable he had ever known. The darkness settled
down thick and black over the woods, the wind began to blow, and by and
by the rain commenced to fall--first a drizzle, and then a steady pour.
Cold and wet, wounded and tired and hungry, the Buck was about as
wretched as it is possible for a mortal to be. And yet that rain was the
one and only thing that could save him. Under its melting touch the snow
began to disappear, and before morning the ground was bare again. Even
the blood-stains were washed away. It would take a better nose than the
judge's to track him now.

Yet the danger was not over, by any means. The judge knew very nearly
where to look for him, and could probably f