A DAMAGED HEAD 253 



very old buck, had been one of the best on the walk, but had 

 wasted a little in the last two or three days on account of the 

 wound, but was, nevertheless, a very good deer. On the morn- 

 ing of the same day I had killed a fine old buck, but wasted to 

 nothing, a small rifle bullet having been lodged in his flank. I 

 was creeping among some very high furze used by the browse 

 bucks near the keeper's lodge, and all at once came in sight of 

 a fine old antler sticking upright in the gorse. I knelt down to 

 stare at it ; it remained perfectly still, and I felt sure that, if 

 the owner of it was alive, he was looking towards me, in doubt 

 if he had seen any motion in the gorse. Patience and flies then 

 for each of us. I knew, as he got more convinced that he had 

 seen nothing, that, if he was alive, he would nod at the flies, 

 however slightly, and presently the horn did so. But where was 

 the other horn ? I wanted to see that to enable me to guess his 

 head, for at that distance, with both horns in view to the brow 

 antlers, I could have done so. Thus we were for half an hour, 

 the horn and myself, the owner of the one still suspicious, and 

 myself fearing to move lest he should bolt off. I could see 

 nothing of his body, but it was a beautiful antler. Tired of 

 suspense, I ventured to raise myself a little, with the rifle at my 

 shoulder ; he saw the motion, and raised his head to ascertain 

 what caused it, so much so that I saw the stump of the other 

 antler and the top of his forehead, through which I sent the 

 ball and killed him on the spot. The magnificent deer had been 

 ill-used ; for not only had his antler been shot away by a power- 

 ful bullet, but there was a smaller one lodged in his flank, from 

 the internal mischief of which he had become a mere skeleton. 

 " Sad work," I said to myself; "and no man ought to shoot at 

 a deer in the forest without a bloodhound within call. 1 " 



