IBEX-STALKING IN ANTIMILO 241 



bore considerable hardships with great pluck, and was 

 certainly worth the wages V. paid him as a sort of 

 involuntary jester and clown. Many a hearty laugh 

 we had at old Thomas's sayings and doings, for a 

 little joke goes a long way in camp ; and even his 

 incurable habit of never approaching our tent with- 

 out falling over the ropes was considered sufficiently 

 amusing to provoke our risible faculty. At last the 

 French boat arrived, V. and his belongings were 

 transferred to the Greek steamer, and we started, off 

 on our rough passage to Syra, and thence on the 

 Fanhellenion to Milo. The old boat, however, was 

 not ready when we reached Syra — in fact she was 

 under repair, and we had to wait there a day. We 

 paid a visit to the Consulate, and learnt that the right 

 of shooting ibex on Antimilo had been duly secured 

 for us for the sum of £4, therefore we were rather dis- 

 gusted on reaching Mr Gialeraki's house at Adamas, 

 to find there a young officer of the Northumberland 

 Fusiliers, stationed at Canea, who had just returned 

 from Antimilo, where he had bagged three ibex, the 

 best being a buck with a twenty-seven-inch head, 

 for which sport he had only paid thirty shillings. 

 What made this the more bitter was that he had 

 heard of Antimilo solely from my own account of 

 my first trip, which had appeared in The Field some 

 months before ; and also that he told us, and correctly, 

 that there was not such another head left on the 

 island. To be sure, his other two ibex were only a 

 doe and a kid, the latter having stepped in front of, 

 and received the bullet meant for, a buck ; but the 

 real sting of what he had to tell us was that Giorgio 

 and his son being, like all Greeks now, armed with 

 Gras rifles, had shot almost all the ibex. 



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