pried out the
bullet, which had lodged against the breastbone.

I took it in my hand. If his story was true, this was not the ball that
passed near my head. We made another search for the man who had fired
at me, but we looked in vain.

CHAPTER XXX.

SHOOTING IN THE FOREST AND BEING SHOT.

Before supper-time, the mule team came in with a load of game. Washburn
had gone out with the sportsmen this time, for during my absence he
would not leave the steamer for a moment. I counted seventeen deer, the
smallest kind I had ever seen, and twenty-one wild turkeys. The next
day the sport was resumed, and I joined the party. At the suggestion of
Colonel Shepard, we took a couple of landing-nets, though what for I
could not imagine. But we had not gone half a mile before I discovered
the use of them.

The woods were full of young quails, which in the South are called
partridges, the latter taking the name of pheasants. These quails ran
in flocks of a dozen or less, and with the landing-nets we could cover
the whole brood. We gathered them up, and put them into a large basket,
with a cover, which we had brought with us for the purpose.

We went several miles farther south than the party of the day before
had gone; and the shooting was so abundant as to be "rather too much of
a good thing." Before noon we had all we wanted, and it seemed to be
wicked to shoot any more. The sportsmen from Enterprise had not been up
as far as this, and the game had hardly ever been disturbed in its
haunts.

I was tired of the sport before the others, and I started back for the
mule team about eleven. I was within two miles of the landing, as I
judged, for we had to estimate all our distances, when I heard the
crack of a revolver or a rifle. At the same instant I felt a burning
sensation in the back of the neck. I placed my hand upon the place, and
found that a ball had just grazed it. My hand was covered with blood
when I removed it.

I expected another shot would follow immediately, and I raised my gun,
which was loaded with ball, and looked about me. I deemed it prudent to
dodge behind a magnolia, of which there was an occasional one in the
forest. I could judge from the situation of the wound on my neck from
what direction the ball had come. My getting behind the tree had
deranged the calculations of the intended assassin. He stood at a
distance of not more than sixty feet from me, pointing a rifle towards
me.

It was Griffin