Luckily he had not heard their approach, and Frank drew the boat
closer under the point, to watch his motions.
They were a good deal excited, and Archie's hand trembled like a leaf,
as he reached for his gun.
Another lucky circumstance was, that the dogs had not discovered him.
Brave and Hunter could have been kept quiet, but Lightfoot was not
sufficiently trained to be trusted.
The boys determined to make an effort to capture him; he would make a
splendid addition to their museum. Besides, they had never killed a
deer, and now the opportunity was fairly before them. But the question
was how to proceed. The buck was out of range of their shot-guns, and
they knew it would be worse than useless to fire at him; so they
concluded to lie still in the boat, and await the movements of the
game.
The buck was standing in the water, up to his knees, deliberately
cropping the leaves of the lilies, and now and then gazing toward the
opposite shore, as if he were meditating upon something. At length he
appeared to have decided upon his course, for he waded deeper into the
water, and swam boldly out into the lake.
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