black as a coal wi' fire for
miles an' miles on end. At other times the Redskins go huntin' in
'ticlur places, and sweeps them clean o' every hoof that don't git
away. Sometimes, too, the animals seems to take a scunner at a place,
and keeps out o' the way. But one way or another men gin' rally manage
to scramble through."

"Look yonder, Joe," exclaimed Dick, pointing to the summit of a
distant ridge, where a small black object was seen moving against the
sky, "that's a deer, ain't it?"

Joe shaded his eyes with his hand, and gazed earnestly at the object
in question. "Ye're right, boy; and by good luck we've got the wind
of him. Cut in an' take your chance now. There's a long strip o' wood
as'll let ye git close to him."

Before the sentence was well finished Dick and Crusoe were off at full
gallop. For a few hundred yards they coursed along the bottom of a
hollow; then turning to the right they entered the strip of wood, and
in a few minutes gained the edge of it. Here Dick dismounted.

"You can't help me here, Crusoe. Stay where you are, pup, and hold my
horse."

Crusoe seized the end of the line, which was fastened to the horse's
nose, in his mouth, and lay down on a hillock of moss, submissively
placing his chin on his forepaws, and watching his master as he
stepped noiselessly through the wood. In a few minutes Dick emerged
from among the trees, and creeping from bush to bush, succeeded in
getting to within six hundred yards of the deer, which was a beautiful
little antelope. Beyond the bush behind which he now crouched all was
bare open ground, without a shrub or a hillock large enough to conceal
the hunter. There was a slight undulation in the ground, however,
which enabled him to advance about fifty yards farther, by means of
lying down quite flat and working himself forward like a serpent.
Farther than this he could not move without being seen by the
antelope, which browsed on the ridge before him in fancied security.
The distance was too great even for a long shot; but Dick knew of
a weak point in this little creature's nature which enabled him to
accomplish his purpose--a weak point which it shares in common with
animals of a higher order--namely, curiosity.

The little antelope of the North American prairies is intensely
curious about everything that it does not quite understand, and will
not rest satisfied until it has endeavoured to clear up the mystery.
Availing himself of this propensity, Dick d