LETTER XII. 141 



goat, and in my struggles to keep my feet some 

 pebbles rolled more noisily than usual down the 

 ravine. This attracted his attention, and he 

 turned his head over his shoulder and stared at 

 me stolidly for quite half a minute, wondering 

 apparently what I was and what on earth I 

 wanted, but not afraid. After looking long 

 enough to begin to get eerie notions into my head, 

 I managed to get a steady shot at this uncanny 

 white beast, who was certainly not forty yards 

 from me all the time ; and a bullet not far from 

 the root of his ear sent him toppling into a 

 land where all doubts cease. 



I could have bagged more goats had I wanted 

 to, as there were at least a dozen of them, male 

 and female, about the craggy point on which we 

 were, and every ledge had been their lair at 

 some time or another ; but I was sick of the stupid 

 brutes, and satisfied with two great graybeards 

 I had already bagged. My first goat, hit, I fancy, 

 too far back, betook himself to a place to die, 

 where I could not follow, though Toma promised 

 himself his skin, after he should have left my 

 service on the morrow. I don't know whether 

 he ever got the skin, but I fancy not, as my 

 little friend got a scare that day which will keep 

 him from those mountains for some time. He 

 had left his knife in camp, so that he and my 



