THE GUARDIAN OF THE FLOCK. 



The only thing now to be done was to try and follow up the 

 rams, as, to us, they did not appear to have been much alarmed. 

 We had scarcely gone half a mile when Changter descried an- 

 other flock of five more. They were a long way off and con- 

 siderably above us, but they had already detected us, as they 

 lay on the watch among the grey stones, from which, by 

 reason of the way nature so often assimilates the colour of 

 wild animals to that of their surroundings, they were hardly 

 distinguishable until they rose and began moving restlessly 

 about. There was one old fellow with a mighty pair of horns, 

 evidently the guardian of the flock and an uncommonly sharp 

 one too, for' I could see, with the glass, that his head was 

 turned continually towards us. The other four, two of which 

 also carried very fine horns, seemed to intrust their safety in 

 a great measure to the extreme watchfulness of their big 

 leader. I had got into the thick of them this time at any 

 rate, but the ground was so open and undulating as to render 

 a stalk there almost impossible. 



For at least two hours did we lie on the bare stony ground, 

 being half baked by the blazing sun, for we dared not move 

 until the animals put some cover, in the shape of a hill-top, 

 between us and them. When they at last did so, it took us 

 at least another hour of hard work to reach the place where 

 they had disappeared, and, after all, on getting there, nothing 

 was to be seen of them in the wide valley beyond but their 

 tracks. We, however, again made out our two first friends of 

 the morning. But they were much too far off to follow 

 that evening, so we left them undisturbed, in hope of being 

 able to find them next day. 



Find them again we did, but under such circumstances that 

 I would rather have dispensed with their presence at the time, 

 as will afterwards be shown. From the foot of the valley in 

 which we had last seen the tracks of the five rams the even- 

 ing before, I took a careful search with the telescope over all 

 the ground within sight, and at length made out several rams 



