170 THE SURROW ARE CIRCUMVENTED. 



smaller lateral one on the right, running into the main one 

 just below me, and up which offshoot Hookmee says the 

 surrow may possibly take. 



As I sit there expectant among the rocks, being half 

 baked by the hot March sun, I can hear the beaters as they 

 come slowly down through the ringals and trees in the khud, 

 but only the sound of their tapping-sticks, for old Hookmee 

 has got them well in hand. Presently a voice comes from 

 high up on the opposite side of the glen. It proceeds from 

 one of the scouts stationed there, calling my attention to two 

 surrow he can see passing along the rocky face below me on 

 the left ; but the ground is so steep there, that to me they 

 are invisible. Again he shouts that they have turned up 

 the smaller gorge to the right, and I have not long to wait 

 before a rustle among the dry fallen leaves apprises me that 

 something is coming up it. But the beast keeps so well 

 concealed in the thick cover, that it passes on without giv- 

 ing a chance for a shot. It is followed almost immediately 

 by its companion, which suddenly detecting me, turns sharp- 

 ly round, and, under cover of the brushwood, makes for the 

 opposite ridge of the ravine. More fortunately for me than 

 for the surrow, it has to traverse an open bit of steep ground 

 before it can reach the ridge ; but a bullet from the Whit- 

 worth catching it in rear, turns it back. It stands for a few 

 seconds as if bewildered, when another bullet causes it to 

 totter back down towards the cover at the bottom of the 

 ravine. A movement among the bushes below me now at- 

 tracts my attention, and almost directly I catch sight of the 

 first surrow, which, probably missing its mate, has returned 

 in search of him, and is now standing broadside on, in a 

 small open space among the brushwood, within fifty yards. 

 The contents of my second weapon, a miniature "360 ex- 

 press, sent into its shoulder, floors it at once in its tracks. 



I now devote my attention to the other surrow, which I 

 find is so sick as to be incapable of moving away. I have 

 hardly settled it with the " pea-shooter," when again I hear 



