CH. XXVI. WOUNDED STAG. 107 



Before he came within two hundred yards of me 

 he turned off, and I watched him as he scrambled 

 along on three legs painfully and slowly, stopping 

 frequently to look back, or to smell at the blood 

 that was trickling down his sides. I could 

 plainly see that he was also struck somewhere 

 about the middle of his body, as well as on the 

 horn and leg, and was now bleeding fast. It 

 then occurred to me that Donald had fallen in 

 with a lame stag, and had thought it best to do 

 what he could towards killing him with my gun. 

 Bullets he always took with him by my orders. 

 The stag continued his painful march, and I would 

 have given much to have been within reach to put 

 an end to the poor brute's misery. He twice lay 

 down on a grassy spot amongst the rocks, having 

 first looked anxiously and fearfully round him; but 

 seemingly the attitude of lying was more painful 

 to him than moving slowly on. I remembered then 

 a theory of Donald's, that a deer never lies down 

 when shot through the liver, but continues moving, 

 or at any rate standing, till he dies. How far this 

 opinion was correct I never had a good opportunity 

 of proving. The deer before me, having found that 

 lying down gave him no relief, continued moving, 

 but still slowly and with evident difficulty. Once 

 he stopped and stood in a pitiful attitude, trembling 



