HOW THE SENTINEL FELL. 149 



ram stood like a carved statue, his only movement 

 being the turning of his head from one point of the 

 compass to another. For several minutes he would 

 gaze in one direction intently, and then jerk his head 

 around and look another way, but he was so far from 

 the hunter that the latter was unable to make out 

 when he was looking in the direction of the natural- 

 ist and when he was turned the other way. At last 

 Dyche determined to chance it and crawl up towards 

 the crag when he thought the ram was looking from 

 him. 



The wind was in the hunter's favour, and had it not 

 been for the old ram on the rock the stalking of the 

 band would have been a very simple matter. As it 

 was, the only feasible plan appeared to be to crawl 

 over the grassy slope from the edge of the timber, 

 keeping to the right of the cove in which the sheep 

 were feeding. Hatchet and belt were left at the foot 

 of the tree, and the campaign began. 



Carefully crawling about fifty yards into the open 

 space, the head of the sentinel came in sight outlined 

 against the sky. The head was plainly to be seen, 

 but the question to be solved was which way the 

 animal was looking. After watching the horns for 

 some time, Dyche decided that the ram was looking 

 away from him. He began pushing himself along, 

 watching those big horns all the while and stop- 

 ping at the slightest movement of the sheep's head. 

 This continued until noon, and the hunter was 

 just beginning to congratulate himself on the success 

 of his plan, when all his calculations were upset by 

 the appearance of a second pair of horns on the crag. 



