<TITLE>16. Par 150-162</TITLE>L-150   He was such a fine hunter, but he was the cruelest man I ever met in my life. He had eyes like a lizard, and he just... Them kind, you know, like the women try to paint their eyes today, kind of lizard-like. Well, he actually had that kind of eye. And it don't look like human, to me. And so I--I always kind of hated to look at him. He was so slimy-looking like that, you know, look them eyes sideways.

L-151 And he loved to be mean. And he would shoot fawns, that's little baby deer, just to make me feel bad. And he would say, "Oh, preacher, you're like the rest of them. You're chicken-hearted. You would be a good hunter if you wasn't a preacher."

L-152 I said, "I'm hunting souls, Bert." And I said, "You got one that's lost." See?

L-153 And he, "Ah, get next to yourself!" Said, "Billy, you're all right, but," said, "don't talk that kind of stuff to me." So he'd--he'd shoot those little fawns, and--and that just make me feel so bad.

L-154   Now it's all right to kill a fawn if the law says so, now, the size or sex, just whatever the law says. I was game warden for many years. But look, Abraham killed a calf and fed it to God, so there ain't nothing about killing a fawn, if the law said. But not just shoot them, just let them lay there, and act smart about it; that's wrong, that's wrong in doing it. So I just said that to justify my hunting brothers here, you see, so that you would see what I'm trying to mean.

L-155 Now notice this, that we find that this man... One day I went up there, wife and I were together. And--and he had made him a little whistle that blowed and sound just like a little baby fawn crying, you know, a little funny blate they make. Well, as long...

L-156   I had been working, and I hadn't got through in time, in a meeting, and I went up to hunt with him. And there had been a lot of hunting going on, and the first time a gun fires, in that country, them whitetail... You--you thought Houdini was escape artist; he was an amateur, to them. And the first thing you know, they would all hide. And if there's moonlight, they would graze at night; or get under a brush pile or something, and they--they wouldn't move.

L-157 Then we see that day, I said, "Bert, you're--you're not going to use that whistle?"

L-158 He said, "Ah, preacher, you're so chicken-hearted!" Said, "Get next to yourself."

L-159   And we started out, and we put some sandwiches in our--in our shirt. And we was hunt... was going to hunt till about noon, up around the rims of the top of the--of the Presidential Range, and then separate and come back down. If we got a deer, we know where it would be hanging, we would go pull it out, in a day or two; hang it up. So there was about, oh, four inches of snow, or six, something like that, it was good tracking time. And we started off, got along about, up the mountain, not a track, there wasn't a thing. The moon shining at night, and deer... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

L-160   Bert was in front of me, leading the way, and so I was walking along behind him. And he just kind of sat down, like that. The snow was dry. And he started reaching back, I thought he was going to eat the sandwich and we would just part from there, 'cause we was way high in the mountain then. And he reached back here.

L-161 And I started getting my sandwich, and I started finding a place to set my rifle down. And--and I started to get my sandwich, and I looked around.

L-162 He brought this little whistle out. That, I thought, "Boy, that's a dirty trick to do that." So he took this little whistle, and looked at me, in them lizard eyes, and looked up at me. He put that little whistle in his mouth, like that. And I said, "Bert, you wouldn't do a thing like that, would you?"


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