After a few minutes' search Mr. Wilder exclaimed:
"Here's the run the deer use. Steady now. Mind your feet. Don't
make a sound."
With almost no noise, the party descended. Now and then one of the
lads slipped, but there was always a rock or a sapling at hand
which they could grasp to steady themselves and no one fell.
As he reached the edge of the mist, Mr. Wilder held up his hand as
a signal to halt.
Turning his head, he listened intently for some sound that might
give him an inkling as to the whereabouts of the deer.
In his eagerness to locate them, Horace moved away from the trail
to the left and then stopped.
Barely had he halted when a loud sneeze rang out from directly in
front of him.
So sudden and so near was it that Horace cried out in fright.
At the same moment the antlers of a big buck appeared from the mist
and then vanished as quickly, only to reappear a moment later,
followed by its head and shoulders.
Whether the buck or the hunters were more surprised it would be
hard to say. For several seconds they stared at one another.
Larry, Tom and Horace were trembling like leaves, victims of "buck
fever," a species of stage fright which makes it impossible for any
one to hold a gun steady, and Bill was in such a position behind
the others that he could not aim his rifle unless he put it between
the heads of the others.
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