THE DEATH. 219 



dry narrow escapes, I found myself within fifty yards 

 of the stag, his horns just visible above a tuft of 

 heather. Altering my position, therefore, so as to 

 command a view of his neck, I fired. The ball passed 

 through his wind-pipe, and he at once dropped. On 

 reaching the burn, we found that he had rolled twenty 

 or thirty yards down its course, and in the fall had 

 broken off the tip of one of his points. However, he 

 was a magnificent beast, and well repaid the exertions 

 of the day. 



While the usual process of gralloching and disem- 

 boweliug was gone through, I sat down to eat a biscuit 

 and take a nip of whiskey ; and then serving out a 

 similar modicum to my companion, took out my glass 

 and began to look for Alister. Hector was sure that 

 his stag, having taken a different route, would by this 

 time be somewhere in the lower part of the glen to our 

 right ; and, just as I was about to raise my glass to look 

 for him, the distant report and white puff of a rifle 

 told of the exact spot where he was. My glass was 

 immediately directed to the place, and I at once saw 

 him standing in the open ground, his stag still going 

 away a short distance in his front. He had evidently 

 succeeded in creeping in for a long shot, but had fired 

 without success. And now Hector and I were again 

 on our legs ; this time purposing to make for a shepherd's 

 hut, whither Alister would in all probability soon direct 

 his steps, as the shades of evening were fast approach- 

 ing. For half an hour we hurried on, discussing the 

 sport of the day and other kindred topics, with which 

 a Highlander's cranium is usually well stored. 



As we reached the very bottom of the glen, at the 

 distance of a good mile from the spot where Alister's 

 last shot had been fired, a most furious barking of dogs 

 was heard some little distance down the course of a 



