est gal.

"Well, we just had t' give up 'n' own up beat. 'N' Goda'mi'ty! but
didn't them two cheap imitation hunters tell us what they thought o' us
pr'fessionals--said 'bout everything anybody could think of, 'cept cuss
us. 'N' there was no doubt in our minds they wanted to do that. If
they'd been plumb strangers, 'stead o' friends o' one o' our parties,
it's more'n likely brother 'n' me'd wore out a pair o' saplings over
their fool heads, 'n' paddled off 'n left them t' tump-line theirselves
out o' th' bush. But I told brother 't was only a day or two more, 'n'
we'd chew our own cheeks 'stead o' their ears.

"The last day we had in camp they asked us t' make one more try with th'
hounds. We took th' two ridges north o' th' shanty deer-lick 'n' drove
west, with them on a runway sure to get a deer if there was any left t'
start runnin'. Scarcely ten minutes after we loosed th' hounds I heard
them stopped 'n' bayin', over on th' slope o' th' ridge brother was on,
bayin' in a way made me just dead sure they had a bear.

"Now a bear-kill, right then t' go home 'n' lie about, tellin' how they
fit with it, would 'a suited our sham hunters better 'n' a whole passle
o' antlers; so I busted through th' bush fast as I could, fallin' 'n'
rippin' my clothes nigh off--only t' find our hounds snappin' 'n' bayin'
round a mighty big buck, that when I first sighted him, seemed to be jest
standin' still watchin' th' hounds. Never saw a deer act that way
before, 'n' him not wounded, 'n' nobody'd shot. Jest couldn't figure 't
out at all. But I was so keen t' get them fellers a bunch o' horns I
didn't stop t' study long what p'rsonal private reasons that buck had for
stoppin' 'n' facin' th' hounds.

"I was in the act o' throwin' my .303 t' my face, when brother hollered
not t' shoot, 'n' t' come over t' him. 'N' by cripes! while I was
crossin' over t' brother, what in th' name o' all th' old hunters that
ever drawed a sight do youse think I noted about that buck? Darned if
that buck wa'n't _blind_--stone blind--blind 's a bat!

"Poor old warrior! He'd stand with his head on one side listenin' t' th'
hounds till he had one located close up, 'n' then he'd rear 'n' plunge at
th' hound; 'n' if there happened t' be a tree or dead timber in his way,
he'd smash into it, sometimes knockin' himself a'most stiff. But when
all was clear th' hounds stood no show agin him, blind as he was. Old
Loud 'n' Frank, that naturally put up a b