SHEEP AND GOATS 255 



my heart was going like a pump. I poked my rifle 

 carefully over and covered the nearest one. Bang 

 went little Henry, and over and over rolled my thar, 

 until out of sight below, where I heard him thump, 

 thump, as his body bounded down the cud. I 

 slipped in another cartridge and had just time for 

 another shot as the remaining thar stood for a 

 moment, after the first scatter caused by my shot, 

 before they topped the opposite slope and disap- 

 peared. I looked at Saddik inquiringly. " All 

 right, Sahib ; I think you hit that one too. I hope 

 he will lie up the other side of the jungle and die 

 without tumbling down like the first, who is, I fear, 

 smashed all to pieces. We will give him time to 

 die ; I don't think he will go far." So, nothing 

 loth, I lay still and smoked a pipe. " Now chello, 

 Saddik," said I, when I had finished my smoke ; and 

 away we scrambled down one side and up the other 

 of the rift between us and where I hoped to find my 

 beast. Near the top we came on a blood track, and 

 I felt easy in my mind. I only hoped that he was 

 dead, and would not struggle up and follow the 

 example of number one down the cud. " All right, 

 Sahib," Saddik pointed. There he lay against some 

 scrub birch, stone dead. I called up my coolies, who 

 were behind, to skin, quarter, and take him home. 

 Then we had indeed a scramble to get down to 

 where number one lay, but at last we found him ; 

 his body was smashed up terribly, and his skin cut to 

 ribbons, but luckily the head was all right, and 

 turned out to be a very good one. 



