92 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



The stranger splashed after him, rushed at him, and was- 

 the first to grip him and drag him towards the shore, till 

 the hill-men came up and took the affair into their own 

 hands. 



When protracted torments, however acute, terminate in 

 complete success, it is astonishing how suddenly all precon- 

 ceived anger ends with them. Considunt venti fugiuntque 

 nubes. Thus it was with Tortoise ; and when he saw the 

 open, happy countenance of the English stranger, wha 

 accosted him as if he had performed the most serviceable 

 feat in the world, he could not forbear laughing outright. 



" Fine sport, sir," said the wild huntsman ; " glorious 

 sport ! butjyou finished it a little too soon ; I would you 

 had let me come at him again, I would fain have plucked 

 the laurel." 



" I believe, sir, we are indebted to you for having 

 protracted the good sport so long ; for owing to your very 

 valorous exertion we have pursued that noble fellow some 

 miles farther than we had calculated upon." 



" I am too happy, sir, to have been the means of affording 

 you any assistance. I am not a regularly trained sports- 

 man, whatever you may think; but some encounters of 

 this sort have happened to me before ; so that, perhaps, I 

 may say, ' Sono anch' io cacciatore.' " 



" You may say so, indeed, if it so pleases you." 



All were now intent upon the deer, which was a first- 

 rate one : he had few points to his horns, being one of those 

 originally marked out as the fattest ; he was beautifully 

 cleaned, and all the operations being carefully performed, 

 Tortoise thought it high time to satisfy his curiosity. He 

 learned from the Sassenach that he was an artist, and 

 travelled over the country, making sketches, with a light 

 knapsack at his back ; he had come that morning from 

 Badenoch, and the Highlander before mentioned was his 

 guide. He was a man, factus ad unguem, and a magnificent 

 walker, and at once recognised by the hill-men as the 

 painter who came to Blair two years before, and took 

 Macintyre, with the Duke's permission, as his guide to 

 Braemar forest. Now, Macintyre was one of the stoutest 

 walkers in Atholl ; no step was lighter or more elastic up 



