THE WILD GOAT. 183 



I had of it, it seemed to be covered almost to its 

 heels with tremendously shaggy brown hair. That 

 and its immature appearance was all that I had 

 time to take in. It saw me as soon as I saw it, 

 and though I instinctively raised my rifle before I 

 realised that it was too small for me to shoot, it gave 

 a wild bound and disappeared behind a rock before 

 my rifle had reached my shoulder. A second later 

 I heard it dashing headlong down the precipitous 

 descent to the central basin, where my brother was 

 stationed. 



It was worth all the toil and trouble that we had 

 gone through to catch merely the one glimpse that I 

 had had of the animal. It would have been worth 

 many days' journeys to have been able to see, and not 

 merely imagine from the hearing, the dainty way in 

 which the animal leapt down the sheer limestone 

 from crag to crag, and to have seen and not merely 

 heard the mad flight through the blind undergrowth 

 and murderous limestone pitfalls. That was the only 

 glimpse that I have ever had of a Kambing grun, but 

 I would not have missed it for a good deal. I am 

 glad it was a young animal, for had it been some 

 patriarch of the herd my recollection of the encounter 

 might have been embittered by my inability to get a 

 shot, whereas now I can hug to myself the thought 

 that even if I could I would not have fired. 



Not long after some of the beaters came up, and the 

 drive, so far as my side of the hill was concerned, was 

 over. I sent the men down the hill to the central 

 basin, in which my brother was stationed, for as this 

 was the direction the kid had taken I thought that 



