THE CLUE DISCOVERED. 209 



required rest, and we might yet find him again and 

 secure him. 



Hector, therefore, having now completed his opera- 

 tions, and the stag being laid out under a rock, to 

 which he could direct the gillies on the following day, 

 we re -loaded and started in the track of the herd. 

 Before reaching the head of the pass the shepherd's 

 eye had detected a drop of blood lying, still wet, on a 

 small stone in our path ; this raised our surmises into 

 certainty; and we now moved forward cautiously, so 

 as not to lose an opportunity if the stag should be 

 lying near. We had just mounted the pass, and were 

 pausing to breathe at its summit, when the deer, a 

 magnificent hart, rose from the heather at the foot of a 

 rock, nearly three hundred yards in front, and, without 

 deigning to vouchsafe us more than a hasty glance, 

 crossed over the ledge of rock under which he had 

 been lying, and was immediately lost to view. 



Anxious not to leave a wounded beast in all likeli- 

 hood only to die by a painful and lingering death, I 

 fired a hasty shot just as he disappeared, but the bullet 

 flattened against the rock a few feet in his rear, and 

 again he had escaped us. However he was a noble 

 beast, and we were determined, if possible, not to lose 

 him ; loading therefore with all speed, I joined Alister 

 and Hector, as they hurried forward to the spot where 

 he was last seen, in the hopes of watching him till he 

 should again lie down. As we passed the lair he had 

 just left, the blood staining the ground told of the 

 severity of his wound. And now we sat down on a 

 boulder stone, perched curiously at the very summit of 

 a craggy eminence, and began with our glasses to scan 

 the wide stretch of moorland lying before us. 



From the brightness of the sun in front, it was not 



p 



