122 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



off, and still I staggered on. Old Duncan, a very in- 

 different third almost from the commencement, was 

 now hopelessly tailed off. In other five minutes I 

 had to call a halt, and sit down on a stone, done to a 

 turn, and feeling very much " amidst the ruins of 

 Carthage." " If I only had you, you bloody High- 

 land thief," I soliloquised, " I'd mur Bang ! 

 came a solitary report, reverberating over the hills, 

 and all was silent as the grave. " He's either shot 

 himself this time," and at this conception I chuckled 

 with delight, " or he's got the beast, or he's come to 

 the end of his ammunition." Of those three surmises, 

 two were, as I presently discovered, correct. AVith 

 his last cartridge he had smitten the stag on the head, 

 stopping him at last, but breaking one of the antlers 

 off by the roots. I thought I'd have something to 

 take home now, in my present state of mind quad- 

 ruped or biped was immaterial to me, so getting on 

 my legs, I made for the high ground, whence I knew 

 I should l>ave a clear look in front. Seating myself 

 again, with trembling hands I adjusted the glass. 

 Two white, or, comparatively speaking, white, objects 

 in the far distance Eory's shirt-sleeves. A slaughter- 

 house-looking mass in the immediate vicinity the 

 entrails of the " noble animal." " Faith, he's got 

 him no mistake about that," I said to myself, as I 

 strode down the hill, preparing an address which, for 

 impassioned eloquence, would contrast favourably 

 with the happiest efforts of the right honourable 



