122 THE IMAGE OF WAE 



it when his wounded shoulder gave, and he rolled 

 anyhow down the next hundred yards, staining the 

 snow with blood. Then he struck a reef of rock. 

 Whether his impetus or an attempt to rise carried 

 him on I cannot say, but he clattered over it, and 

 shot down a second snow - slope nearly as long as 

 the first, and finally brought up against some more 

 rock. I watched him a minute or two longer, and 

 then he loivered his head. Little doubt of finding 

 him now ; so I turned back to seek the dog. It did 

 not take me long to get back, and then I made 

 for a point where I imagined it would be possible 

 to get down. But, in the first place, the getting 

 there involved rather a nasty descent, which the dog 

 declined ; and, secondly, when I got to my spot I 

 found it quite impossible. Nor could I even get a 

 look at ray game without a risky climb. There was 

 nothing for it but to go round the cliff to my right, 

 a proceeding which a grass terrace facilitated. Noth- 

 ing is more convenient for the chamois-hunter than 

 these same terraces, as long as he keeps away from 

 the edge and does not look down ; but one must 

 know them, or else at the end of half an hour one 

 comes to a fault in the rock which involves going 

 back, perhaps to where one started from. It proved 

 so in this case, but the place was not so bad but 

 that I could negotiate it by a flat crawl, pushing 

 my rifle and stick before me, and then all w£is plain 

 sailing. At this stage I was joined by the dachshund, 

 who had gone back and got round. He soon com- 

 menced to draw on the scent of the game, and long 

 before I could get to him I heard him growling and 

 pulling at the body. 



As the reader will recollect, I had neither the 



