158 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



the big stag. He was standing behind a low rock 

 looking straight in our direction, and I could only 

 see his head and a bit of his chest. To my surprise, 

 Duncan handed me the rifle. 



" I'll miss him to a moral certainty," I whispered. 



" No fear, sir," was the reply ; " you've killed 

 many a worse chance than that." 



" Never take a very difficult chance as long as you 

 have some hours of daylight to come and go on." l 



Here was an opportunity again of putting my 

 theory into practice. " I won't fire at him," I said, 

 decisively. Taking the rifle in his hand, without a 

 word, Duncan began to creep forward, I followed. 

 We hadn't gone ten yards till a hind there were 

 seven, unfortunately, instead of six caught sight of 

 us and ran down the hilL 



" The hind has seen you, sir," said Duncan in a 

 most unchristian-like tone of voice. 



" Possibly," I said, " after she saw you." 



Duncan hadn't the slightest idea the hind was 

 there any more than I had. The stag didn't quite 

 know what had happened (there were large rocks all 

 over the ground). I am not sure that he saw the 

 hind at all ; but he saw or heard something, and 

 began to move off slowly, constantly looking back in 

 our direction. Presently he stopped full broadside 

 on. "Now, sir," said Duncan, again handing me 



1 Those words of wisdom I spoke in my first Reminiscences 

 see ante, p. 114. 



