The Biijnurd Sheep 1 9 1 



doing our evening spying for stag, and it was 

 balm to my feelings to learn that he also had 

 missed. I seized the moment of his humiliation 

 to indulge in a straight talk, and so that dark 

 day ended. 



Now as to the cause of those misses, the 

 chaos of doubt in my soul, after much thinking, 

 focussed itself into the belief that it was due to 

 using a rifle with open sights instead of the Lyman 

 to which I had grown accustomed. Though my 

 own mind is satisfied (?) as to the exact " how " 

 and " why," the point would probably interest 

 no one but myself, so I will say no more. 



The following day we saw a herd of sheep, but 

 this time the stalk failed, and it seemed my luck 

 had strayed somewhere. Three days of the six 

 I had allowed myself on the ground had gone 

 and I had shot nothing. 



The fourth day, we had spent the morning in 

 fruitless search, and the shikaris had begun talking 

 of their crops, their wives, and other matters which 

 necessitated their presence at home. I saw what 

 was coming, a demand for rukhsat (permission to 

 depart), which, if not granted, would be taken all 

 the same. Just at this moment we spotted on a 

 grassy plateau four big rams that were almost 

 immediately lost to view in a bush-filled ravine. 

 There was just a chance that we had not been seen 



