Just as they were about to pull the triggers a curious thing happened. The deer suddenly raised their heads, and gazed at a spot to the left of them. Then they bounded away, so swiftly that it was difficult for the eye to follow them.
“Well, did you see that?” asked Nat. “Something scared them.”
“Yes, and it wasn’t us,” said Jack. “We’re out of sight, and the wind’s blowing from them to us. I’m going to see what it was that sent them off.”
He mounted his horse again, an example that Nat followed, and they rode down the glade to where the deer had been feeding.
“I wonder if it could have been a bear?” asked Jack of his chum. “If it was——”
He did not get a chance to finish the sentence, for even as he spoke the bushes just in front of the two lads were parted, and three men stepped into view.
“What are you lads doing here?” asked one of the strangers sternly.
“We—we were hunting,” replied Jack. “We saw two deer, but they ran before we could get a shot.”
“Well, you’d better make back tracks to where you came from,” said another man gruffly. “Vamoose, you!”