62 EXCITING MOMENTS. 



lay there, hardly daring to draw breath lest it might disturb 

 the silence. No one but a sportsman can appreciate the 

 feelings of a moment like this. 



Suddenly a loud sound broke the profound stillness, and 

 was so startling from its unexpected proximity that it almost 

 brought my beating heart to my mouth. It was the short 

 alarm-note 1 of the stag, and was followed by several im- 

 patient stamps of his hoof. These signs were unpropitious, 

 and, I feared, indicative of his having either winded or heard 

 us. However, I lay there motionless, straining my eyes in 

 the direction of the kar, in momentary expectation of his 

 emerging from behind one of the patches of tall brushwood 

 which grew close around. The loud, short bellow was re- 

 peated at intervals, accompanied by stamping, which grew 

 more and more distant, and at length ceased entirely. There 

 was no longer any doubt about it, the beast had detected us, 

 and there was now little hope of seeing him that night, or in 

 all probability for several to come. 



At the first streak of dawn we clambered down from our 

 airy lodging, benumbed and stiff from cold, and exceedingly 

 mortified. But there was no help for it, so we took our way 

 regretfully down the hill, hoping for better luck next time. 

 I must say the sunrise over the snowy range, glorious as it 

 was, had not the same charms for me that morning as it 

 would have had under more cheerful circumstances. This, 

 however, was not the last of the stag. 



Thinking it unlikely that he would return to the kar for 

 at least two or three nights, I shifted my quarters with the 

 intention of, in the meantime, hunting gooral on some ground 

 where I had often been successful. The locality was exceed- 

 ingly wild, and the hillsides very precipitous and difficult to 

 work over. And from the fact of there being no human 

 habitation within miles, and village shikarees considering it 



i A totally different sound from his prolonged bellow during the rutting 

 season. 



