364 THE IMAGE OF WAR 



begged me to go lower down, and so at last I went 

 on to the upper edge of the final slope. A little time 

 elapsed, but nothing appeared, so I signalled to my 

 man to go back and try to move him towards me. 



Five minutes later I heard a stone roll, and directly 

 afterwards the ram galloped past. I do not, I con- 

 fess, fancy myself at galloping shots with a rifle, but 

 when I fired he went down as though hit rather far 

 back. He was up at once, though, and went back 

 the way he had come. I hurried after him to get 

 a second shot, but hearing a scrambling in the pass, 

 made upwards, to find it was only Mehemet coming 

 down. This spoilt my chance. We found no blood, 

 but the ram had gone downwards — generally a sign 

 of a wounded animal. Mehemet followed the spoor 

 a bit, but soon gave up, saying it was no good ; and 

 no doubt I had missed. My only comfort was that 

 it w^as not much of a ram. 



At mv shot five more moufilon moved out of the 

 ravine up the opposite face, making a total of a dozen 

 we had seen that morning. 



My permit to shoot moufilon had now expired — 

 these being for one month only — and so I applied 

 for and obtained another. I had now been out six 

 whole days and ten mornings without having had a 

 really good chance — unless it was on the occasion 

 when my rifle was bolted — and I felt that something 

 must be done. Whilst I was Avondering what this 

 could be I happened to hear that Anastasi, mentioned 

 in The Field fifteen years before as a capable stalker, 

 was still flourishing. I had never thought of him, 

 as he was described then as an old man. Mehemet 

 declared that his eyesight was gone, but nevertheless 

 I determined to try him, and sent oft" a letter to the 



