I know what he has done ; he has circled round so as to get behind me and get my scent . It is a clever trick , a very clever trick , but two can play at that game . I 'll just try that little trick myself . '' So the hunter in his turn made a wide circle back , and presently there was none of the dreaded man-smell among the scents which the Merry Little Breezes brought to Lightfoot . Lightfoot had lost track of the hunter . CHAPTER VIII : Wit Against Wit It was a dreadful game the hunter with the terrible gun and Lightfoot the Deer were playing in the Green Forest . It was a matching of wit against wit , the hunter seeking to take Lightfoot 's life , and Lightfoot seeking to save it . The experience of other years had taught Lightfoot much of the ways of hunters and not one of the things he had learned about them was forgotten . But the hunter in his turn knew much of the ways of Deer . So it was that each was trying his best to outguess the other . When the hunter found the hiding-place Lightfoot had left at the warning of Sammy Jay he followed Lightfoot 's tracks for a short distance . It was slow work , and only one whose eyes had been trained to notice little things could have done it . You see , there was no snow , and only now and then , when he had stepped on a bit of soft ground , had Lightfoot left a footprint . But there were other signs which the hunter knew how to read , -- a freshly upturned leaf here , and here , a bit of moss lightly crushed . These things told the hunter which way Lightfoot had gone . Slowly , patiently , watchfully , the hunter followed . After a while he stopped with a satisfied grin . `` I thought as much , '' he muttered . `` He heard that pesky Jay and circled around so as to get my scent . I 'll just cut across to my old trail and unless I am greatly mistaken , I 'll find his tracks there . ''
So , swiftly but silently , the hunter cut across to his old trail , and in a few moments he found just what he expected , -- one of XXXXX 's footprints .
Deer Forest Jay Lightfoot VIII footprint left man-smell scents years