156 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



friend's head. He tried to make me understand the 

 impossibiUty of my behest, and, lest I should insist, 

 hurriedly started to work decapitating the prize. Well, 

 the head and toll of the nimble feet contented me, for 

 the summer coat was in an ugly state of transition, 

 neither short nor long, bare and long-haired in patches. 



Overhead the snow eagles wheeled slowly round and 

 round against a darkening sky. There is something so 

 ruthless in their purposeful flight, something wildly 

 lonely and grand and very aloof. The great birds were 

 still high in the clouds as the scene of their banquet- 

 to-be faded from our view. There was no hurry, such 

 as the Vulturidse display. 



We made the shooting-box as night fell and supper 

 — thanks be ! — was imminent. Cecily and her sports- 

 man were still at large. Kenneth had a chamois with a 

 freak right horn, and had also bagged a good tur which 

 fell over a precipice and was irrecoverable. He said it 

 was a record head. 'Tis ever thus. The records always 

 fall over the cliffs, and the mediocre animals remain to 

 face the tape. 



My friend told Kenneth of our glorious hunting day, 

 but stopped off at the wave of enthusiasm. I told 

 that part myself. My cousin said, " Quaint people, 

 these foreigners ! Now, an Englishman under similar 

 circumstances would have behaved very differently." 



And from my own experience I am inclined to agree 

 with him. But — I must not forget. Kenneth only 

 surmised from books — being a Scotchman himself. 



We got rather anxious about Cecily, who didn't 

 return until nearly midnight, after a blank day. They 



