"Hurrah!" shouted Dick. "Not bad for the first crack."
Bang—bang!
Bob Somers and Sam Randall had fired almost simultaneously.
Another long-eared bunny fell a victim to their aim, while a third dashed off and disappeared in the bushes.
"And whopping big fellows, too," said Dick, enthusiastically, as he picked one up and held it aloft. "'Hatchet' brags so much about his shooting. He'll find that he isn't the only one."
A quarter of an hour more found the boys again ascending. Here and there, the ground was strewn with boulders of enormous size. Above them the rugged line of the hill was silhouetted against the clear blue sky.
As they toiled slowly up, a most unexpected and astonishing sight suddenly met the boys' gaze. It set their nerves tingling with excitement.
Not a hundred feet distant, at the top of the hill, there appeared a magnificent buck. For an instant, his dark, graceful form and spreading antlers were clearly defined. His head swung quickly around, then he wheeled about, and vanished on the other side before the surprised hunters could make a move.
"Did you ever see such a beauty?" exclaimed Dick, in great excitement.
"Let's make a sprint for it."