It was so late when we got this one dressed that we decided to return to camp at once.
The curiosity which is so prominent a feature in the antelope's nature costs many a one of them his life, and is taken advantage of by the hunter in various ways. When we reached camp that afternoon Dick told us how he had taken advantage of it. He had seen a small band on a level stretch of prairie where there was no possible way of getting within range of them, and having heard that if a man would lie down on his back, elevate his feet as high as possible, and swing them back and forth through the air, that it would attract antelopes, decided to try it. But the antelopes of this section had evidently never seen soap boxes or bales of hay floating through the air, and had no desire to cultivate a closer acquaintance with such frightful looking objects as he exhibited to their astonished gaze. And Dick said that when he turned to see if they had yet come within shooting distance they were about a mile away, and judging from the cloud of dust they were leaving behind them seemed to be running a race to see which could get out of the country first.
The next morning Sam and I went together and Dick alone in another direction. During the forenoon I shot a buck through both fore legs, cutting one off clean and paralyzing the other. Sam said not to shoot him again and he would catch him, and putting spurs to his horse was soon galloping alongside of the quarry. He caught him by one horn and held him until I came up. The little fellow pranced wildly about, and bleated pitifully, but a stroke of the hunting knife across his throat soon relieved his suffering.
We then got the head from the buck Sam had killed the day before, and returned to camp about 11 o'clock a. m.
In the afternoon we rode out together again, and had not gone far when we saw five of the bright little animals we were hunting on a hill-side. They were too far away for anything like a sure shot, but were in such a position that we could get no nearer to them. They stood looking at us, and Sam told me to try them. I had little hope of making a hit, but dismounting took a shot off hand, holding for the shoulder of a good sized buck. When the gun cracked there was a circus. I had missed my aim so far as to cut both his hind legs off just below the knee. The buck commenced bucking. First he stood on his fore feet, got his hind legs up in the air and shook the stumps. Then he tried to stand on them and paw the air with his fore feet, but lost his balance and fell over backward. He got up, jumped first to one side, then to the other, then forward. Meantime Sam rode toward him, and he tried to run. In this his motions were more like those of a rocking horse than of a living animal. The race was a short one. Sam soon rode up to him, caught him by a horn and held him till I came up and cut the little fellow's throat. Then Sam said that was a very long shot, and he would like to know just what the distance was. He went back to where I stood when I shot, stepped the distance to where the antelope stood, and found it to be 362 paces.