Right near is a high rock with a steep face about fifteen
feet straight up an' down. I scrambles on to this an' breathes
ag'in, 'cause I knows no deer is ever compiled yet who makes the
trip. The buck's come to complete by now, an' when he observes me on
the rock, his rage is as boundless as the glory of Texas.'
"'Gents, we-alls takes another cow-swaller, right yere,' shouts
Texas Thompson. 'It's a rool with me to drink every time I hears the
sacred name of Texas.'
"When we-alls conceals our forty drops in the usual place, Lyin' Jim
proceeds:
"'When this buck notes me, he's that frenzied he backs off an' jumps
ag'in the face of the rock stiff-laiged, an' strikes it with them
hoofs of him. Which he does this noomerous times, an' every hoof
cuts like a cold-chisel. It makes the sparks go spittin' an' flyin'
like it's a blacksmith-shop.
"'I'm takin' it ca'm enough, only I'm wonderin' how I'm goin' to
fetch loose, when I notices them sparks from his hoofs sets the pine
twigs an' needles a-blazin' down by the base of the rock.
"'That's what comes to my relief. In two minutes this yere spreads
to a general conflagration, and the last I sees of my deer he's
flyin' over the Divide into the next canyon with his tail a-blazin'
an' him utterin' shrieks.
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