SUCCESS. 29 



escape, if I were not vigilant. My ears, therefore, 

 were strained to the utmost to catch any sounds of 

 approach ; but in vain. Just, however, as I quite 

 accidentally cast a look upwards, I caught sight of a 

 roebuck standing on a crag some eighty yards distant, 

 and looking down in an attitude of the most profound 

 attention upon me ; his head slightly on one side, his 

 neck stretched forward, and one fore-foot a little raised, 

 ready to give one stamp of warning, and then bound 

 away. In an instant my gun was to my shoulder, and 

 I fired ; but the buck had sprung from the rock almost 

 before I touched the trigger, and I heard my shot 

 flatten on the rock. 



Raising a shout of warning, I re-loaded, and resumed 

 my watch. One of the beaters now approached, and at 

 the same instant three roe emerged from the wood, and 

 again retreated before I had time to fire. I could bear 

 this no longer ; so, running up to the spot at which 

 they had disappeared, I entered the wood, determined 

 to follow, as quietly as possible, in the hopes that I 

 might fall in with them again. 



I had not made much progress among the irregular 

 blocks of stone and the tissue of roots growing or de- 

 caying, when I caught sight of the white rump of a 

 roe just visible above the fern ; but it was impossible 

 to get a shot. Roe have a peculiar mode of running, 

 with their heads stretched out and in a stooping posture, 

 so that amongst fern of a moderate height, nothing is 

 visible but occasionally the white rump ; and this was 

 the case now. However, this occasional glimpse en- 

 couraged me, and I crept on as noiselessly as possible, 

 though I was certain that the animal was aware of my 

 vicinity, and was fleeing from me ; and yet I was sur- 

 prised that his flight was not more accelerated. But 

 the distance between us now began to increase, and 



3 



