In Ghost Buck country on a ridge, not far from a stand of tall pines, hides a stone throne. It is nestled on the top of a rock outcropping that overlooks a famous watch on our hunting property. That watch is called, The Pines.

You have read about me and that watch before…

The Throne, is a particularly difficult watch to hunt. Only because it is a rocky watch you can sit in and with the right sunny conditions, you (I) can relax your (my) heavy eyes much to easily. On one such sunny occasion, while high on my throne, a medium sized buck decided to challenge my authority while strolling through the kingdom below me. I guess he thought he might be able to ’slip’ by the sleeping monarch above.

He was almost right.

A couple of snapping twigs pulled me out of my slumber and I detected the visitor to my forested palace. Five thunderous blasts erupted across the land as I emptied my gun on this deer. He expertly used the gads as shields and ran across the bottom of the ridge. I quietly slipped down the ridge toward the gads where the buck had been dodging lead.

I started to get that feeling that supper back at camp was about to get interesting.

There was no sign that I had hit my target anywhere.

“The Ghost Buck must have a new student”, I whispered in my head.

I followed the tracks for about 200 yards with the same results. Disappointed, I headed back towards my patriarchal watch. That was when I saw a flash of white buck tail not far from The Throne. It happened to quickly for a shot.

My gun stayed silent. I had just been ‘usurped’ by junior from his Daddy’s (The Ghost Buck) throne.

An orange clad pawn walked slowly out of a woodland kingdom.

At least, he now had a supper time story.

*I have brought this story back from my archives of 2 years ago