THE WILD GOAT. 181 



a beautiful thing it was bringing ; and as each flew 

 away it called again as if to say that it would find 

 something yet better next time. 



When I had been in my place a little over an 

 hour, a magnificent python, some twenty feet long, 

 moved past me within its own length's distance of 

 me. It had probably been disturbed by a beater 

 when basking on the rocks; but it was in no way 

 alarmed, for it moved slowly and deliberately. A 

 truly splendid creature : it had recently shed its 

 skin, and its new coat shone and glowed in the 

 bright sunshine, and all the shades of purple and 

 yellow in the mottled reticulated pattern of its 

 colouring alternately reflected and retained the light. 

 Its broad massive head and round bright eyes, its 

 royal length and girth, all told of a dignity and 

 majesty even among the beasts that creep upon 

 their belly. 



A few minutes later, and then came a tremendous 

 crash among the trees on the heights in front of 

 and above me. Instinctively my hands gripped the 

 rifle tight, and for a second or two there was a 

 wild pit-pat at my heart. Most people's hearts go 

 wrong for a second or two in a drive, I think, when 

 they first hear the game afoot. It is perhaps the 

 sudden change from passive inaction to active ex- 

 pectation ; and that is the reason, perhaps, why one 

 does not have the same sensation in tracking big 

 game, for there the exercise keeps one's pulse steady, 

 and it is generally only a matter of the change of 

 the degree of expectation. 



Crash ! again, and then a heavy thud on a rock ; 



