138 ANGUISH. 



active and wary as a wild cat, whilst we cautiously ap- 

 proached our game. 



By means of his clever bundobust, then for stalking ibex 

 from below is always a difficult business we at length got 

 within what I imagined to be sixty yards or so of the big 

 buck, as he lay on a small projecting ledge of ground almost 

 directly above us, with his head and shoulders showing over 

 it, his splendid knotted horns sweeping grandly backward 

 against the sky. He seemed so close and so large that I 

 thought it unnecessary to raise any sight. Cautiously placing 

 my cap on the top of a rock as a rest for the rifle, I aimed 

 point-blank at his chest, fully expecting to see him, the next 

 moment, roll lifeless from his perch. But, to my amazement 

 and concern, he jumped up and disappeared like magic, before 

 I had time to think of giving him the contents of the second 

 barrel. When we next sighted him, he was well out of range, 

 though I chanced another shot at him as he now took his 

 way slowly but steadily up the mountain-side. 



My anguish at that moment is impossible to describe. 

 An almost irresistible inclination to fling the empty rifle 

 after him suddenly seized me, as I helplessly gazed at his 

 retreating form. To make matters worse, my companions 

 would keep repeating, " Oho ! what a pity ! he was such a 

 big khel ! " accompanied by that well-known but indescribable 

 sound made with the tongue and teeth, indicative of disap- 

 pointment, thereby aggravating me to such a degree that I 

 fear I must have used very hard language towards them. 



Still clinging to the faint hope that the ibex might perhaps 

 show symptoms of being wounded, as he had separated from 

 the herd, we continued to watch him as he traversed a broad 

 snow-field, on which, in the distance, he looked like a fly on 

 a whitewashed wall, until he at length disappeared over the 

 crest of the range, where it was to us inaccessible. My atten- 

 tion had been so much engrossed by the big buck that I 

 failed to observe what had become of his smaller companions. 



