The Mountain Sheep 195 



approach that we were screened by a succession 

 of little rises and hollows which lay between us 

 and the sheep. This time, this time, there 

 was to be no crawling up to find a vacuum, no 

 raising your head to discover the departed sheep 

 taking a bird's-eye view of you! What the 

 hearts of the other hunters did, I don't know, 

 but my heart thumped with vindictive elation 

 as we sped crouching among the little inter- 

 vening hollows, perfectly hidden from the sheep 

 and drawing close to them at last. Only one 

 more rise and hollow lay between us and where 

 they were pasturing; and over that rise we 

 hastened straight into the laps of some twenty 

 sheep we had known nothing about; they were 

 all lying down. Neither had they known any- 

 thing about us; the surprise was mutual. All 

 round me I saw them rise, as it were, like one 

 man and take to diving over the precipice. Be- 

 wilderment closed over me like a flood ; all my 

 senses melted into one blurred pie of perception 

 in which I was aware only of hind legs and hop- 

 ping. Frightful language was pouring from me, 

 but I didn't hear what it was ; all was a swirl and 

 scatter of men and sheep. Not one of us hunters 

 was ready with his gun or his intelligence. We 



