LETTER VII. 93 



downs above the cliffs, to which they betook 

 themselves at the least symptom of danger, 

 setting the stones rattling down in volleys as 

 they scampered headlong over places which 

 looked hardly safe for a man without a rope. 



On my first day I think I drained the cup of 

 disappointment to the very dregs, and as my 

 fortune has mended steadily ever since, I cannot 

 help feeling that Ill-luck on that day spent her 

 malice upon me. We had hardly left camp, when 

 we made out on the downs below us four mule- 

 deer lying with their heads uphill. At first, to 

 me, they looked only like great gray rocks, but 

 when (having turned our horses loose) we had 

 gone a mile or so, and Toma invited me to peer 

 over a little knoll, I saw through the tall bents 

 the great erect ears of three hinds and the 

 spreading antlers of a buck, not sixty yards 

 from me. Slowly the hinds rose, one by one 

 not winding us, but restless and suspicious. 

 Then at last the buck rose, too, and I knew 

 to a hair's breadth where the bullet should 

 strike him. But the hammer fell with a sharp 

 click, and no report followed. The deer, only 

 half startled, trotted away for fifty yards and 

 then stood again. Trying to keep my temper, I 

 fired as steadily as before, and again the con- 

 founded rifle played me false, and either the deer 



