334 LUKKTJR'S ESCAPADE. 



spur. My feelings at that moment can easily be imagined. 

 My anger and vexation were so great, that I could with diffi- 

 culty refrain from shooting the confounded young beast as he 

 came trotting back after the mischief he had done. There 

 was, however, one chance left, though a very poor one. For- 

 tunately the dog had not followed the animals far, and their 

 attention had been so much taken up with his movements, 

 that they in all probability had not observed ours. We 

 therefore resolved to follow them, on the chance of again find- 

 ing them. 



By the greatest good luck we overtook them about a mile 

 beyond where they had disappeared. Although some of them 

 had begun to feed, they were still in a restless state ; so the 

 only thing to be done was to patiently watch them as they 

 kept slowly moving up the hillside. At last one of them lay 

 down, and the rest soon followed his example. Crawling 

 backwards until we were well under cover, we again got on 

 our feet, and as the wind was favourable, we resolved to 

 try and get above them. To effect this was by no means 

 easy, as the face of the hill we had to climb was awfully 

 steep, and composed of nothing but loose sharp fragments of 

 rock, that afforded most uncertain footing, and frequent stop- 

 pages were necessary to take breath. 



On reaching what we considered a sufficient height to be 

 well above the place where the flock was lying, after a few 

 minutes' rest we had to resume the stooping and crawling 

 process for some distance. But notwithstanding all our 

 caution, the wily animals detected us in some manner, for 

 the next sight I got of them was at about 200 yards, as they 

 were galloping away up the sloping hillside. Sighting for 

 that distance, and making for a lump of rock a few yards in 

 front, that offered a good rest, I placed my cap under the rifle 

 and waited until they stopped, as I expected they would do 

 before going far, to look back. Taking a full bead on the one 

 I thought had the largest horns, I let drive. Away they 



