The distance between his tracks showed that he had broken into a run the moment he struck the trail, and this made it evident that he had decided to pursue the deer.
“Aha!” said Oscar, shouldering his rifle, and once more setting off at his best pace, “Thompson has the start of me this time. But I can’t imagine how he comes to be here, for I understood him to say that he was going down the valley to the place where we saw that otter-slide. I’ll not go back to camp until I find him.”
Oscar now had an opportunity to make some estimate of the speed his guide could put forth when occasion rendered it necessary. He must be set on springs that recoiled sharply whenever his feet touched the ground, Oscar thought, for his tracks were so far apart that the boy could scarcely step into them.
Furthermore, he kept up the same pace without intermission for two long, weary miles; and then Oscar began to realize that Big Thompson could run long as well as rapidly.
The boy was nearly out of breath by this time; and, after a short burst of speed, made with the hope of coming within sight of his guide, he settled down into a walk.
As he moved slowly along, some things Big Thompson had told him in regard to mule-deer came into his mind.
The guide had informed him that in vigilance this animal was fully equal to the mountain sheep, and that in cunning he could give a fox points and beat him.
One of the favorite tricks of an experienced old buck was this: when he became aware that he was pursued, he would run like the wind until he was certain that he had gained a good start of his enemy, then take a short circle to the right or left of his trail, run back a mile or two parallel with and a short distance from it, and finally stop on some hill, from whose summit he could see the country over which he had just passed without being seen himself. When he discovered the hunter advancing along the trail below him, he would take to his heels again, only to repeat the trick a few minutes later.
It was the recollection of this piece of information that caused Oscar to turn his head and look toward a ridge on his right hand, that terminated in a bluff, about fifty feet in height.
As he did so, his eyes opened to their widest extent, and his hands trembled as he took his gun from his shoulder, and laid it in the hollow of his arm.