Trembling she had stopped as if in doubt or uncertainty.

Her ears pointed straight upward, and she lifted one front foot from the ground like a thoroughbred pointer.
Isaac knew a doe always led the way through the woods and if there were other deer they would come up unless warned by the doe.
Presently the willows parted and a magnificent buck with wide spreading antlers stepped out and stood motionless on the bank.
Although they were down the wind Isaac knew the deer suspected some hidden danger.

They looked steadily at the clump of laurels at Isaac's left, a circumstance he remarked at the time, but did not understand the real significance of until long afterward.
Following the ringing report of Isaac's rifle the buck sprang almost across the stream, leaped convulsively up the bank, reached the top, and then his strength failing, slid down into the stream, where, in his dying struggles, his hoofs beat the water into white foam.

The doe had disappeared like a brown flash.
Isaac, congratulating himself on such a fortunate shot--for rarely indeed does a deer fall dead in his tracks even when shot through the heart--rose from his crouching position and commenced to reload his rifle.

With great care he poured the powder into the palm of his hand, measuring the quantity with his eye--for it was an evidence of a hunter's skill to be able to get the proper quantity for the ball.
Then he put the charge into the barrel.