Hawk was still surprised. He had not expected to run into any other deer hunters, and their attitude toward ownership of the one slain doe was a little awkward as well. “Well, I reckon that’s one way of lookin’ at it,” he called back to them. “I figure it’s my bullet that brought the deer down, so that kinda makes it my deer. If you don’t think you can follow the other three and get a shot, yourself, I could share this one with you.”

“I don’t think you understand,” Blue said. “That deer was ours, and we need the whole damn deer, so I ain’t thinkin’ about sharin’.”

“That ain’t very neighborly of you,” Hawk said. “Maybe that doe didn’t know she belonged to you. Maybe if she had known that, she mighta ducked when I shot at her.”

“You’re a pretty funny feller,” Blue replied. “I’m tellin’ you plain as I can make it. We’ve been chasin’ them deer for over a mile, and I ain’t about to give one of ’em up just because you happened to get a lucky shot at it. And I ain’t got no notion of sharin’ that deer with nobody. We need the whole deer.”

“That’s right,” Tater chimed in then. “There’s five of us. We need the whole deer.”

Blue flinched as soon as Tater said it, and he turned to give him a quick scowl before calling out to Hawk again. “That’s a fact,” he said. “We’ve got women and children to feed.”

Hawk’s suspicions about the two deer hunters were already growing, and the comment the one made about there being five of them to feed triggered a strong warning, especially after the one doing most of the talking tried to silence him with a frown. What were the odds that the men he searched for would come to him? Not likely, he decided, still he couldn’t deny the possibility. “You shoulda said that in the first place,” Hawk said. “I don’t wanna take any food away from your women and children. You’re welcome to that deer. I’ll find another one.” He backed slowly away, his rifle cocked, ready to fire at the first wrong move either of the two men made. If he could withdraw without trouble, he would then follow them in hopes he really had met with two of the men he hunted.

“This don’t smell right to me,” Blue murmured to Tater. To Hawk, he called out, “’Preciate it, friend, the young’uns will be mighty happy to get the meat.” When Hawk continued to move toward the protection of the trees, Blue said, “Hold on a minute, I’d like to shake your hand.”