SPOTTED DEER 



wound, as the deer was full broadside to me when I fired, 

 and I soon found, on the line of the shot, a small tree 

 plant with a stem about as thick as my finger cut through 

 at just about mid-body level, which had evidently deflected 

 the bullet upwards and forward with the pleasing result 

 recorded. But for that twig, as far as I could see, the deer 

 would have been quite fairly shot in the body or shoulder. 

 We went back to camp jubilant, and found Garrick had 

 also got his buck, having made a good stalk and brought 

 off the shot at 1 1 1 yards. 



The second slice of luck occurred on our journey 

 from camp to the main road, a distance of 13 miles, 10 

 miles being by wild jungle path, and the last three by an 

 open jungle road called by apology a cart road, but which 

 never sees a cart from one year's end to another, being 

 merely a grass-grown open track meandering through 

 the forest. 



We did the journey without a halt, as we had started 

 by 6 A.M., and had lots of carriers, so Garrick and I went 

 along well ahead. We were just two miles from the main 

 road, and, incidentally, a rest-house we meant to stop at, 

 travelling along the open jungle road above mentioned, 

 when five or six does and two bucks ran out of the 

 forest about 50 yards ahead of us, probably frightened 

 by a leopard, and cantering along the track in the direction 

 we were going. 



Garrick, who was a little ahead of me, fired at one of the 

 bucks, but I think hit the ground under it, or perhaps 

 grazed it, for it gave a jump but went on, and they all 

 disappeared into the forest on our left. 



It at once struck me that they would break back across 

 the road, as there was a rocky river course which they were 

 unlikely to cross not twenty yards inside that jungle parallel 



233 



