"You don't appear to know me, young fellow," he returned with a swaggering air. "It's a mighty hunter I'm getting to be, as well as a famous trapper." "But tell us all about how you got that buck; I know there's something to explain about it," I replied. "Well, now," laying aside his assumed braggadocio and becoming the candid Irishman again, "to tell you the honest God's truth, I just blundered onto him. It was this way: I was a-sneaking along through the timber when all of a suddent I sees this laddybuck a-standing broadside to me, only about twenty steps away, an' he hadn't seen nor heard me, for I was behind a big tree. I was that nervous I didn't think I could have hit the side of a barn, so I rested my carbine against the side of the tree, took as good aim as I could about where I thought his heart ought to be--right behind the fore shoulder--an' let him have it; an' I'm blest if I didn't fetch him, first pop. He gave one big bound into the air an' fell dead; an' just then two does, that had been laying down behind some bushes, jumped an' run an' were out of sight in a jiffy, before I could shove another cartridge into me carbine. But I didn't want any more deer meat just then, so I came back to camp to get the horse to fetch the meat in." "But, Tom," I asked, "what are we going to do with so much venison?" "Oh, it'll keep, all right; but then I'll be going over to the fort again in a day or so, an' I guess I'd as well take two or three of the carcasses over there an' sell 'em to the officers' mess." CHAPTER XVI TOM LOCKS THE STABLE DOOR This evening, just before dark, when we were bringing in the tools and making things secure for the night, I noticed that Tom had got out an old padlock that had long lain unused in the mess-chest, and then had found a piece of trace-chain, and with the two had securely locked the stable door--a precaution that we had never thought necessary before--and I asked him: "What are you doing that for, Tom? Seen any fresh signs about?" "No," he answered, "but 'tain't much trouble an' it's always best to be on the safe side. We've been used to having Found to do guard-duty of nights, an' it may have got us in a fashion of sleeping sounder than we would if we'd had to look out for ourselves; now, while the dog is away, with the stable door unlocked it would be easy enough for an Injun to sneak our horses out an' get away with 'em." I smiled at what seemed to me a useless precaution and it passed from my mind; but along in the night, after we had been some hours asleep, I was suddenly awakened by a slight noise like the rattling of a chain. Instantly I was thoroughly aroused and remembered Tom's chain on the stable door. Had I been dreaming? I raised my head cautiously and listened intently. There it was again--unmistakably the chain on the stable door.