CONTEST OF SKILL. 283 



" Shall I lowze a doeg?" said Maclaren. 



" No, that may spoil the drive, for there is no saying 

 where a cold hart may go to bay : but stay you here ; we 

 will take a long round, and endeavour to get into the 

 burn. Give us twenty minutes, and then try to coax 

 them across, as near yon curve of the stream as you can. 

 If they move forward we will do so too ; so keep the glass 

 upon us, and do your best according to circumstances. 

 Now look at your watch." 



A long round, and a sharp persevering pace, brought 

 them to the destined spot within the allotted time ; having 

 walked for a space with bent bodies, they sat themselves 

 down on a grey stone under the bank of the stream. 

 Maclaren now began his game; entertaining enough it 

 was to see the contest of skill between him and the harts : 

 the continual shiftings of the Gael, however, at length 

 gave them a slight turn towards the east, and they 

 appeared to be coming in a good accommodating direction. 

 But whether they got a blink of the men in the burn, or 

 found ground more to their liking, they at length kept 

 full to the wind, and went straight south. The moss- 

 troopers had not as yet been able to come forward on 

 account of the wind : but now that the course of the deer 

 was obviously determined upon, they made the best of 

 their way under cover of the banks and bogs. All too 

 late they were : for the harts crossed the burn out of 

 distance, but at a slow pace, as they saw not the men. 



Maclaren now got as well round to the west as time 

 would permit him to do : but it was not this manosuvre 

 that made them again bear a point to the east, for they 

 held him particularly cheap ; it was rather the sight of a 



