A JAPANESE MEDLEY 145 



ceeded carefully to skirt the walls of the arena, 

 with the most ludicrously determined expression on 

 his face. As the stag's hind-quarters were the first 

 portion of the beast's anatomy which his peregrina- 

 tions brought him in contact with, he laid hold. 

 The next instant, like Huntley Wright's victim, he 

 was "lying among the fragments, wondering what 

 hit him," whilst the stag was snorting defiance 

 thirty yards away. Pained and grieved was the 

 gentleman's expression as he rose to his feet and 

 wandered idly whither his uncontrolled feet would 

 lead him, amid the delighted yells of the onlookers. 

 Presently his zigzag course led him into the 

 whereabouts of a young stag, a five-pointer. Him 

 he gripped, and though turning somersaults and 

 weird gymnastic tumblings in all directions, hung on 

 like grim death until assistance arrived. The execu- 

 tioner came trotting up with his saw. The bearers 

 of the mat and pillow joined him, but not Sir Walter, 

 who had retired in disgust. Whilst these operations 

 were in progress the big stag came under the in- 

 fluence of the high priest's eye, or some equally 

 potent motive power, and charged down upon the 

 group at full speed. The five-pointer and four men 

 lay directly in his path, but with one single splendid 

 jump he cleared the lot. 



That sealed his doom. A combined effort penned 

 him in a corner from which there could be only one 

 exit, and soon he rushed forth hornless and con- 

 quered to join an unsympathetic family. I witnessed 



