t you blaze away, and knock my buck
over? Thad, oh, do let him have it good and hard! There, now he's gone,
and we've lost him! It's a shame, that's what it is, when I so nearly
got him. And he had six prongs too! Oh, me! oh, my! what tough luck!"

"Don't worry, Step Hen," said Thad, quickly; "that deer can't get away.
You shot him to pieces, and he's just bound to drop before five minutes.
We'll just follow him up, and find him lying as dead as----"

Just what Thad had in mind as a comparison Step Hen never knew. Perhaps
he was going to say "as dead as a door nail," that being a favorite
expression among the scouts; or it might be Thad meant to take a little
flight into ancient history, and compare the condition of that buck
inside of five minutes with the Julius Caesar of olden Roman times. It
did not matter.

He was interrupted by a sudden loud explosion. The sound came from the
quarter in which the buck had just gone, and could not have been far
distant. And even the tenderfoot understood what it meant.

"Oh! listen to that, would you, Thad?" he burst forth with. "There's
somebody else hunting up in this neck of the woods, and they've got my
fine buck! Now, ain't that the worst thing ever; and just when it began
to look as if he ought to belong to me, too; for you said he was hard
hit; and I just know I rung the bell with that bullet. And now I reckon
it's all off. Oh! why _didn't_ you knock him over when you had the
chance, Thad?"

"I sure would if I'd had the least suspicion that there was any other
hunter around these diggings," declared Thad, with a frown on his
usually smooth brow; for he instantly began to scent trouble. "But come
on, let's start along, and see what it all means. Perhaps now old Eli,
or Jim may have wandered out to take a little side hunt."

"But anyway, it's _my_ buck, Thad; you said I got him!" grumbled
Step Hen, as he started after his leader.

They had no trouble in following in the direction taken by the stricken
deer; even Step Hen, upon having his attention directed to the ground by
Thad, could readily discern the trail of blood spots that told how the
buck had been badly hurt by the shot back of the shoulder.

And less than three minutes later the two scouts came upon a scene that
caused Thad to frown; while Step Hen's mouth opened with surprise, even
as his eyes were unduly dilated in his intense excitement.

CHAPTER X.

BARE-FACED ROBBERY IN THE MAINE WOODS.

Thr