Green Forest Stories, Thornton W. Burgess [ebook reader color screen .TXT] 📗

Presently a brown form joined the black-and-white specks. It was a hunter drawn there by the barking of the dogs. He was too far away to be dangerous, but the mere sight of him filled Lightfoot with terror again. He watched the hunter walk along the bank and disappear in the bushes.

Presently out of the bushes came a boat, and in it was the hunter. He headed straight towards Lightfoot, and then Lightfoot knew that his brief rest was at an end. He must once more swim or be shot by the hunter in the boat. So Lightfoot again struck out for the shore. His rest had given him new strength, but still he was very, very tired and swimming was hard work.

Slowly, oh so slowly, he drew nearer to the bank. What new dangers might be waiting there, he did not know. He had never been on that side of the Big River. He knew nothing of the country on that side. But the uncertainty was better than the certainty behind him. He could hear the sound of the oars as the hunter in the boat did his best to get to him before he should reach the shore.

On Lightfoot struggled. At last he felt bottom beneath his feet. He staggered up through some bushes along the bank and then for an instant it seemed to him his heart stopped beating. Right in front of him stood a man. He had come out into the back yard of the home of that man. It is doubtful which was the more surprised, Lightfoot or the man. Right then and there Lightfoot gave up in despair. He couldn’t run. It was all he could do to walk. The long chase by the hounds on the other side of the Big River and the long swim across the Big River had taken all his strength.

Not a spark of hope remained to Lightfoot. He simply stood still and trembled, partly with fear and partly with weariness. Then a surprising thing happened. The man spoke softly. He advanced, not threateningly but slowly, and in a friendly way. He walked around back of Lightfoot and then straight towards him. Lightfoot walked on a few steps, and the man followed, still talking softly. Little by little he urged Lightfoot on, driving him towards an open shed in which was a pile of hay. Without understanding just how, Lightfoot knew that he had found a friend. So he entered the open shed and with a long sigh lay down in the soft hay.

XXIV The Hunter Is Disappointed

How he knew he was safe, Lightfoot the Deer couldn’t have told you. He just knew it, that was all. He couldn’t understand a word said by the man in whose yard he found himself when he climbed the bank after his long swim across the Big River. But he didn’t have to understand words to know that he had found a friend. So he allowed the man to drive him gently over to an open shed where there was a pile of soft hay and there he lay down, so tired that it seemed to him he couldn’t move another step.

It was only a few minutes later that the hunter who had followed Lightfoot across the River reached the bank and scrambled out of his boat. Lightfoot’s friend was waiting just at the top of the bank. Of course the hunter saw him at once.

“Hello, Friend!” cried the hunter. “Did you see a Deer pass this way a few minutes ago? He swam across the river, and if I know anything about it he’s too tired to travel far now. I’ve been hunting that fellow for several days, and if I have any luck at all I ought to get him this time.”

“I’m afraid you won’t have any luck at all,” said Lightfoot’s friend. “You see, I don’t allow any hunting on my land.”

The hunter looked surprised, and then his surprise gave way to anger. “You mean,” said he, “that you intend to get that Deer yourself.”

Lightfoot’s friend shook his head. “No,” said he, “I don’t mean anything of the kind. I mean that that Deer is not to be killed if I can prevent it, and while it is on my land, I think I can. The best thing for you to do, my friend, is to get into your boat and row back where you came from. Are those your hounds barking over there?”

“No,” replied the hunter promptly. “I know the law just as well as you do, and it is against the law to hunt Deer with dogs. I don’t even know who owns those two hounds over there.”

“That may be true,” replied Lightfoot’s friend. “I don’t doubt it is true. But you are willing to take advantage of the fact that the dogs of someone else have broken the law. You knew that those dogs had driven that Deer into the Big River and you promptly took advantage of the fact to try to reach that Deer before he could get across. You are not hunting for the pleasure of hunting but just to kill. You don’t know the meaning of justice or fairness. Now get off my land. Get back into your boat and off my land as quick as you can. That Deer is not very far from here and so tired that he cannot move. Just as long as he will stay here, he will be safe, and I hope he will stay until this miserable hunting season is ended. Now go.”

Muttering angrily, the hunter got back into his boat and pushed off, but he didn’t row back across the river.

XXV The Hunter Lies in Wait

If ever there was an angry hunter, it was the one who had followed Lightfoot the Deer across the Big River. When he was ordered to get off the land where Lightfoot had climbed out, he got back into his