Rancho Del Muerto, and Other Stories of Adventure: by Various Authors, from "Outing"King, Charles
General
Rancho Del Muerto, and Other Stories of Adventure: by Various Authors, from "Outing"
King, Charles
Adventure stories; Fiction; Hunting stories; Short stories
his gun to the right and pulled the trigger. The buck passed on, while
twigs and bark rained on me from the whizzing buckshot. Would you
believe it?--but you all know him--not a moment did he halt or once
remove his eyes from whatever it was that had fascinated his gaze in
front. He still danced forward, light as an Indian, with eyes starting
from their sockets. Presently up jumps a doe. She, too, bounded to the
rear, but on Blount's left this time. Again, with his staring eyes
still glued to the something in front--bang! 'What in the ------ are
you about?' roared Parrish from Blount's left; 'you will be shooting
somebody the first thing you know. Here is one of your crazy shot
through my hat.' To all which our wild man paid not the least attention.
'Jennings! Jennings! come here! come here! come here! quick! quick!
quick! For God's sake, man, hurry!'
“I dismounted and ran up to him. 'There! there! give it to him! Good
Lord, man, can't you see him? There, in that lap!' I strained my eyes
in vain. I could see nothing. 'Why, don't you see him turning his head?
He is looking at us! My Lord, Jennings, gimme the gun! gimme the gun!
gimme the gun!' Just as I did so a noble buck sprang from the lap and
bounded off. Blount drew down upon him. Bound after bound, and still
Blount did not fire, though he seemed to be pulling away for dear life
at the triggers. Presently the deer, passing behind a clump of trees,
disappeared. I carried my gun at half cock. This Blount did not know or
remember. He bent both my triggers. Any other man might very well have
bagged all three deer with such a chance. And what do you suppose he
then said? 'At any rate, I laid out two of the rascals. Come, Jennings,
help me find 'em.'”
Dogs were not used on these hunts. Two or three trusty old hounds, it is
true, hung about the heels of our leader's horse, but they were employed
only in running down badly-wounded animals. For the first day or so
these dogs were hard to control, so rich was the scent that met their
nostrils at every turn; but after the third day they grew too _blasé_ to
take any interest in any trail not sprinkled with blood. We had a number
of horn signals. If a gun was heard, followed by a long blast (every man
wore a horn), the line halted. A deer had been killed in its tracks.
A second blast indicated that the quarry had been strapped behind the
saddle of the lucky man; and once more the line moved forward. But if
three or four short, excited toots, mingled with shouts, rang out upon
the frosty air, a wounded deer was being pursued, and the leader of the
hunt galloped up, followed by his little pack, who soon pulled down the
game.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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