One of the favorite tricks of an experienced old buck was this: when he became aware that he was pursued, he would run like the wind until he was certain that he had gained a good start of his enemy, then take a short circle to the right or left of his trail, run back a mile or two parallel with and a short distance from it, and finally stop on some hill, from whose summit he could see the country over which he had just passed without being seen himself. When he discovered the hunter advancing along the trail below him, he would take to his heels again, only to repeat the trick a few minutes later. It was the recollection of this piece of information that caused Oscar to turn his head and look toward a ridge on his right hand, that terminated in a bluff, about fifty feet in height. As he did so, his eyes opened to their widest extent, and his hands trembled as he took his gun from his shoulder, and laid it in the hollow of his arm. CHAPTER XXVI. THE RIVAL HUNTERS. The top of the ridge was thickly covered with bushes, and it was something Oscar imagined he saw behind those bushes that caused his eyes to open, and set his hands to trembling violently. Arising above the top of the thicket was an object that looked for all the world like a pair of wide-spreading antlers; and on the ground could be dimly seen another object, that greatly resembled a doe lying down. A person whose eyes were less keen than Oscar’s might have looked toward the top of the ridge a score of times without seeing anything but bushes there; but the young hunter was positive that the deer he had been following were stationed within easy range of him, closely watching all his movements. Why did he not bolt at once and shoot at them? For the reason that he knew that so long as he kept moving, and the animals fancied themselves unobserved, they would remain motionless in their place of concealment; but the instant he came to a stand-still, they would take the alarm and show him their heels. Besides, he wanted to obtain a better view of them, if he could, to gain a favorable position for a shot, and to make sure that they were really live deer, and not creatures of his imagination. With these thoughts in his mind, Oscar walked slowly along the trail, keeping his eyes fixed upon the shrubbery. In a few seconds another cluster of bushes shut the doe out of his sight. This seemed to cause her some uneasiness, for she promptly arose to her feet and moved nearer to the buck, so that she could look through the tops of the bushes at the hunter. It was plain that she thought it best to keep her eyes on him. The buck, at the same time, shifted his own position very slightly, and thus brought himself in front of an opening in the thicket, through which Oscar saw that he could obtain a fatal, or at least a disabling shot. These movements on the part of the game removed all doubts from the mind of the young hunter.