304 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



remembered ? Oh, yes, yes ! Lest he should tell the 

 story o'er again. 



Two fearless eyes, diamond bright, distracted my 

 attention momentarily. Close beside me they flickered, 

 " like dewdrops caught in a spider's web." A weasel, 

 a whity-brown mottled weasel, just thinking of donning 

 ermine. His flat triangular head swayed from side to 

 side as he grew bolder and bolder. I never saw such 

 inquisitiveness ! What was he like — something creepy 

 and crawly and altogether undesirable ? I had it. A 

 serpent ! 



That ollen simply walked into the trap — a child 

 could have dropped him. On he came, crackling over 

 the beech-mast blown up the hill-side by the heavy 

 winds, until he passed a hundred yards below me. 

 Then, his loose stride and his head nodding in slow 

 time with the royal swing of his limbs was arrested. 

 I saw his muscles tighten up, and the sense of some- 

 thing untoward grip him with deadly fear. Poor 

 beast ! Chance is a fine thing, and he had no chance 

 at all, unless, unless I gave him one. 



Did I ? Ah, I wonder ! 



Cecily, out with the Prince, added a fair ollen to her 

 list of trophies, a ten-pointer. He was crossing a 

 stream shoulder-deep, and as he gained the bank she got 

 him. By Russian sporting law the beast was our 

 host's, who drew last, and, as my cousin confided, most 

 unnecessary, blood, seeing that the deer was already 

 badly hit. His Highness waived his claim, however, 

 saying generously that he had many skins and heads 

 of ollen, and we had not ! 



