Читать книгу Trail and Trading Post; or, The Young Hunters of the Ohio онлайн

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Dave pressed to the front and took a look ahead. There, among the bushes, was a beautiful doe with a fair-sized fawn beside her.

“Good!” whispered Dave, raising his rifle. “The best kind of deer meat. Which will you take, Henry?”

“I’ll take the doe.”

“All right, I’ll take the fawn. It’s a pity to kill such a beautiful creature, but it can’t be helped. We need the meat.”

Both moved a little closer, to a spot where they could get a better chance at the doe and her fawn. Just as they raised their rifles the mother deer looked up and gave a sniff. The fawn followed, and both started to bound away.

Bang! bang! Both guns rang out in quick succession. The fawn fell in a heap in the bushes and lay still. The doe struggled on, mortally wounded in the breast. But hardly had she gone ten feet, with Henry and Dave after her, than an old frontiersman stepped from behind a tree, ran up, and plunged a hunting knife into her throat, bringing her career to an end.

“Sam Barringford!” cried Dave and Henry in a breath.