Jim knew the buck, and knew that any delay on his account would be
useless.

"I knowed 'im when I hearn 'im whistle, an' he knowed me. He's been shot
at from this boat more nor twenty times. 'Not any pine-knots on my
plate,' says he. 'I seen 'em afore, an' you can pass.' I used to git
kind o' mad at 'im, an' promise to foller 'im, but he's so 'cute, I sort
o' like 'im. He 'muses me."

While Jim waited and talked in a low tone, the buck was evidently
examining the light and the craft, at his leisure and at a distance.
Then he gave another lusty whistle that was half snort, and bounded off
into the woods by leaps that struck every foot upon the ground at the
same instant, and soon passed beyond hearing.

"Well, the old feller's gone," said Jim, "an' now I know a patch o'
lily-pads up the river where I guess we can find a beast that hasn't had
a public edication."

The tension upon the nerves of the boys was relieved, and they whispered
between themselves about what they had seen, or thought they had seen.

All became still, as Jim turned his boat up the stream again. After
proceeding for ten or fifteen minutes in perfect silence, Jim whispered:

"Skin yer eyes, now, Mr. Balfour; we're comin' to a lick."

Jim steered his boat around a little bend, and in a moment it was
running in shallow water, among grass and rushes. The bottom of the
stream was plainly visible, and Mr. Balfour saw that they had left the
river, and were pushing up the debouchure of a sluggish little affluent.
They brushed along among the grass for twenty or thirty rods, when, at
the same instant, every eye detected a figure in the distance. Two
blazing, quiet, curious eyes were watching them. Jim had an instinct
which assured him that the deer was fascinated by the light, and so he
pushed toward him silently, then stopped, and held his boat perfectly
still. This was the signal for Mr. Balfour, and in an instant the woods
were startled by a discharge that deafened the silence.

There was a violent splash in the water, a scramble up the bank, a bound
or two toward the woods, a pitiful bleat, and then all was still.

"We've got 'im," said Jim. "He's took jest one buckshot through his
heart. Ye didn't touch his head nor his legs. He jest run till the blood
leaked out and he gi'n it up. Now, boys, you set here, and sing
hallelujer till we bring 'im in."

The nose of the little craft was run against the bank, and Mr. Balfour,
seizing the torch,