el caused Isaac to stop and reflect, with the result that he
concluded he had gone much farther from the fort than he had
intended. He turned to retrace his steps when a faint sound from
down the ravine came to his sharp ears.

There was no instinct to warn him that a hideously painted face was
raised a moment over the clump of laurel bushes to his left, and
that a pair of keen eyes watched every move he made.

Unconscious of impending evil Isaac stopped and looked around him.
Suddenly above the musical babble of the brook and the rustle of the
leaves by the breeze came a repetition of the sound. He crouched
close by the trunk of a tree and strained his ears. All was quiet
for some moments. Then he heard the patter, patter of little hoofs
coming down the stream. Nearer and nearer they came. Sometimes they
were almost inaudible and again he heard them clearly and
distinctly. Then there came a splashing and the faint hollow sound
caused by hard hoofs striking the stones in shallow water. Finally
the sounds ceased.

Cautiously peering from behind the tree Isaac saw a doe standing on
the bank fifty yards down the brook. Trembling she had stopped as if
in doubt or uncertainty. Her ears pointed straight upward, and she
lifted one front foot from the ground like a thoroughbred pointer.
Isaac knew a doe always led the way through the woods and if there
were other deer they would come up unless warned by the doe.
Presently the willows parted and a magnificent buck with wide
spreading antlers stepped out and stood motionless on the bank.
Although they were down the wind Isaac knew the deer suspected some
hidden danger. They looked steadily at the clump of laurels at
Isaac's left, a circumstance he remarked at the time, but did not
understand the real significance of until long afterward.

Following the ringing report of Isaac's rifle the buck sprang almost
across the stream, leaped convulsively up the bank, reached the top,
and then his strength failing, slid down into the stream, where, in
his dying struggles, his hoofs beat the water into white foam. The
doe had disappeared like a brown flash.

Isaac, congratulating himself on such a fortunate shot--for rarely
indeed does a deer fall dead in his tracks even when shot through
the heart--rose from his crouching position and commenced to reload
his rifle. With great care he poured the powder into the palm of his
hand, measuring the quantity with his eye--for it was an eviden