152 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



best one, at which I meant to fire first will see it 

 instantly," I said. 



" If you please, shoot, sir," was the reply. 



" A nice sort of a cove you are," I said to myself, 

 " to keep an elderly gentleman, tottering on the verge 

 of two score years and ten, cool under trying circum- 

 stances, a lot of Boers you would hit if they were 

 coming up the hill in front of us ; " and totally dis- 

 regarding the rifle, I crept forward again leisurely to 

 make up my mind which stag I should take next, in 

 the event of my killing the first. Having decided, 

 and seeing there was no other rock available for a 

 good rest but the one in front of me, 1 I took up the 

 rifle, and cautiously pushing the barrel over the rock, 

 prepared to take aim. Instantly up jumped a liind ; 

 but I was too quick for the stag, for I shot him dead 

 before he could get on his legs. Turning my atten- 

 tion to the next, I rolled him over as he was making 

 off at his best pace. Good stags they were both, of 

 sixteen and fifteen stone respectively. 



Now I claim this to be an instructive anecdote. 

 Had I allowed myself to be bothered and bustled by 

 Murdoch head man in a well-known forest too, for- 

 sooth these deer would probably be feeding in that 

 forest at the present moment. If you can only reach 

 the stage at which I have arrived (my trumpeter, 

 never a robust man, and whose office for many years 



1 No one who knows anything of gunnery would rest the 

 rifle actually on the rock. 



