The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-21
he STOOD FOR A MOMENT CLEAR CU1
AGAINST THE w0ODA

n
AGAINST THE woODA
fact that 1t was being pursued, and
now not only its head and neck but its
shoulders also were thrown high out Of
water as it stra; med every muscle in
the effort to escape. ] bent to the oars
again with redodbled energy, and the
strange race swept on. The perspira.
ton began to run down my face in
streams; my arms felt as IL they were
turned to lead. and my heart throbbed
painfully.
The next time I looked over my
shoulder I was thunderstruck TO sec
that the deer had gained upon me more
than forty yards! / dropped my oars in
despair and sat watching it; but stran-
ger still, though the deer kept swim
ming on as before, the distance between
us seemed neither to increase nor les
sen. Long after my boat had lost all
Its Roadway. was unable to see that
the antlered head was any farther
away than before.
At length, in a dazed kind of way, I
picked up my rifle and began to fire.
The bullets rained all around the swim
mig deer. Some of them, from the APP
pearance of the jets of water which
they threw up, must 1 thought, have
passed directly through it. I fired
the seventeen shots in my magazine.
and then shot number of times sing
ly, slipping the shell directly into the
barrel. While was still firing, cloud
came over the sun, and slight breezs
| began to ripple the water. AS If by
magic. the deer's head disappeared 1
rowed to the spot where l had seen it
last, stood up in the boat. and looked
around me on every side. Not an OBJ
ject was visible upon the surface of tho
water Even if had killed the buck,
it would have sunk, as deer are Sin the
blue" in the latter part of October, and
the long hair of their winter coat buoys
them up so that they float like ducks
l began to row toward the shore.
hoping to run across the mysterious
buck again. All at once the sun reap
peared, the surface of the water stilled,
and my heart leaped into my throat as
/ saw the antlered head drawing near
the shore, which was now less than q
hundred yards from where / sat.
slipped three or four cartridges into
my magazine, and. carefully marking
the point toward which the deer was
swimming, pulled for it with ell my
might hoped to be near enough.
when the buck raised his entire body
/ out of the water, to get in two or threc
quick shots. And in this / was not
disappointed. Swinging my boat
around when within about forty yards
of shore, saw the big buck emerging
on . strip of beach. He stood there for
q moment, as dark and clear-cut against
the woods as q cameo. / took careful
aim and fred once. twice, three times.
At the last shot the buck made . leap
into the woods and was gone!
rowed to the little strip Of beach
where / had seen him standing. The
sand was SO light and smooth that .
squirrel would have left the imprint of
his foot there. But not a track could
find on any part of the beach Nor was
the earth displaced or the bushes dis
turbed where the deer seemed to have
made his leap into the woods
returned to the boat and sat think.
ing over my strange experience until
heard three guns from campfire even
ing signal for return. As rowed into
the little bay whore the other boats
were drawn up. the boys all shouted in
chorus:
Hello! What were you shooting at?'
And | responded, confidently: "A
spook!"