A NEW GUIDE. 201 



CHAPTER II. 



Hector, our new Guide. Sighting the Deer. The Approach. Stalk 

 interrupted. Fresh Game afoot. Council of War. Driving the 

 Deer. Ambush and Shot. A Clue. Fresh Deer wounded. 

 Double Chase. Disappointment. Pursuit continued. Death. 

 Stag at Bay. Fallen Nobility, j 



SOON after the expedition recorded in the last 

 chapter, information was brought us by a shepherd, 

 whose cottage was situated in a distant part of the 

 ground, but who paid periodical visits to the Laird's 

 house for supplies of oatmeal and sundry other com- 

 modities, that a herd of deer containing some very 

 good heads, was daily to be found in some of the 

 higher valleys in his neighbourhood, and accordingly we 

 started at day-break in search of them. We were not 

 attended, as on almost every other occasion, by 

 Gillespie. Every Highlander seems by instinct to 

 know how to stalk a deer, though some may be much 

 more skilful than others, and on the present occasion 

 we had arranged to put ourselves under the guidance 

 of the above-mentioned shepherd. Hector, of course 

 well acquainted with the ground in his own neighbour- 

 hood, was withal a very smartly-built and agile- 

 looking individual, and though without the experience 

 of the veteran fox-hunter, he had an eye keen enough 

 to pick up a deer at any ordinary distance. He had 



