• THE OLD BUCK OF KODAKARNAL. I31 



I have so often abused, did me good service now, enabling 

 me to get down the steep slope and under the cover of an 

 intervening spur without disturbing the ibex. With both 

 barrels of my old Ross on full cock I noiselessly mounted 

 the ridge, and as I craned over it, almost at my feet I 

 saw his horns and then his head. I moved half a step 

 forward to uncover his body, but he saw me and was 

 down out of sight in a second. I dashed forward and 

 saw him making tracks some thirty yards below me. I 

 was just going to fire, when he pulled up for a moment, 

 and then I pulled the trigger and a bullet from the true and 

 faithful old rifle went crashing through his shoulders ; he 

 tried to dash away, but toppled over a rocky precipice and 

 disappeared in the mist. But where ? Fortunately there was 

 a long slope before coming to the final precipice, but so very 

 steep that he could scarcely have stopped there unless the 

 lemon grass and fern, which is very thick, had held him. 

 Peering through the mist we could make nothing of it, but 

 when it cleared a little, I could see his track for some dis- 

 tance down. As there was plenty of grass to hold on by, we 

 cautiously descended, and at the bottom of the slope there he 

 was, stone dead. 



Thus died, as I supposed, the old saddle back of Koda- 

 karnal ! Daniel (the boy) says he has known him for eight 

 years, and " no gentleman never could shoot him." We 

 brought up his head, though I did not half like the scramble 

 up the steep wet slope with my rifle in one hand, for a slip 

 backwards would have caused me to reach the low country 

 sooner and quicker than I ever intended. 



The boys next day went down and brought home 

 the skin and meat. To my great disappointment Daniel 



