Tracker by Gary Paulsen

Author:Gary Paulsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

EIGHT

John had read several books about deer and deer hunting. One writer would say all deer do this, another would say all deer do that. But in truth the deer didn’t read the books and they did just as they wanted.

Some deer slept at night and fed in the day, some bedded down during the day and fed at night. Still others slept and fed intermittently all day and all night. There was not a normal way for deer, John knew—only the deers’ way.

The deer that John was following bedded often during the day. In a normal twenty-four hours she might make four or five beds—some in darkness, others during the warm part of the day where the sun could get her.

After her second near brush with John she went farther. She was not yet really alarmed, that much John could see from her tracks. They were still full of purpose, though for half a mile she stretched them out and covered distance with some speed.

By the time John was well into the first half mile of tracks the doe was two miles away. And this distance gave her time to get out of the escape mentality—he could see the tracks settle down, get steady.

In nature, John knew, danger came with great suddenness. A mouse could be feeding peacefully on a stem of grass one second and be in a fox’s belly the next instant. Two grouse could be performing the mating ritual and within a heartbeat come under an owl’s silent slashing attack.

But if danger comes suddenly it also leaves quickly. If the fox misses the mouse, it seldom persists; the owl looks for another meal. It takes too much precious energy to chase food that is forewarned; it’s much easier to find prey that can be taken without so much effort, off guard.

By the time she’d gone those two miles the doe had forgotten about John. Her tracks settled down and John followed them slowly, carefully.

He knew he could get her, knew by her tracks. She would move ahead of him and stay there for a time but she would forget and all he had to do was stay on the tracks and he would get a shot. And if he got a shot he would get her.

He visualized it. She would move and then stop and he would put the bullet through her shoulder and she would stagger sideways and down with the impact. The life would go out of her, out and out, leaving the gray film on her eyes and he would cut her throat and the red would flow out on the snow, warm and rich and steaming …

He shook his head. It was wrong to project when hunting. Nothing came the way it was supposed to come and planning didn’t work. You might stand and watch a clearing for hours, waiting for the deer to come out, and it would pass ten feet in back of you and you wouldn’t know it.

He washed

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