238 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



scarcer. Tortoise pressed the arm of his companion in 

 silence ; at length he removed his hand. 

 " Now, then, all is safe ; follow me." 

 He sank out of sight over the hill to the west with rapid 

 foot and bent body, and then came in more southwards, 

 within shot of the tail deer, when both sportsmen knelt 

 down on the heather. As the hinds came on, an anxious 

 look was sent to the rear in hopes to descry the points of 

 an approaching antler. At length the horns actually did 

 appear; and Lightfoot, all trembling with eagerness, was 

 clapping his rifle to his shoulder, when Tortoise stayed him, 

 whispering in his ear, "A worthless beastie, my good fellow, 

 let him pass : remember the four-year-old the enormous 

 monster the hand credo : this is a twin to him." But 

 nothing better came on nought but rubbish. So not a shot 

 was fired. 



They now gave them a little time to get on, and then 

 peeped through the heather-tops at the slope of the green 

 knowes. There they saw the vast herd below them, which 

 had kept increasing their forces as they passed the lower 

 grounds. There might have been some four or five hundred 

 of them altogether. 



The deer now began to form into a more compact body. 

 Some looked back, some towards the slaps in the dyke, 

 others to the east and west. Now they drew up on an 

 eminence to the east : they longed for the security of the 

 woods, but were afraid to venture. Sometimes they were 

 about to break to the west, some on the opposite quarter ; 

 but at every point they met with opposition. At these 

 critical moments, various were the pushes made by the 

 sportsmen in the rear to each flank of the green knowes 

 in accordance with their motions. Still as they ran they 

 were concealed under the rising ground. Pressed on their 

 flanks, and alarmed on their rear, the woods seemed the 

 only refuge for the herd ; and a long string of harts and 

 hinds raced away within shot of some stone dyke that 

 bounded them ; the rest of the body lingered behind, as if 

 to ascertain how the experiment would succeed. 



Now began the din of arms : two rifle shots echoed 

 through the hollow woods, and two noble harts bit the 



