TWOFOLD CHASE. 211 



few steps up the banks of the stream, or standing to 

 refresh themselves in its channel. We watched them 

 thus, till they slowly disappeared behind a grassy 

 knoll, and then once more resumed the chase. 



Following the lead given us by the shepherd, in a 

 quarter of an hour we found ourselves past the most 

 open part of the ground, and standing on the banks of 

 the very burn above mentioned, though at a distance of 

 perhaps half a mile below where we had last seen them. 

 We now therefore began to follow its course upwards ; 

 but a pelting rain coming on, forced us to seek shelter 

 under some of the broken banks whose ruptured and 

 riven sides told of the extent and strength of the 

 waters when in speyet. In this way we were detained 

 for a considerable time ; and at length when the storm 

 had passed off, we rose from our crouching position, 

 stiff, chill, and far from comfortable. Indeed we 

 were ourselves, in spite of the shelter we had sought, 

 well nigh wetted to the skin, and our rifles looked any- 

 thing but dry. However a nip of whiskey imparted a 

 degree of warmth to our shivering bodies, and the caps 

 of the rifles being changed, in case they might have 

 become damp, we started up the burn. 



Each turn in the bank was now rounded most 

 cautiously, and every inch of ground carefully ex- 

 amined ; but nothing was visible, even though we had 

 passed some distance beyond the spot where the deer 

 were last seen. At length however, Hector pointed to 

 an object just visible above the bank, a little to our 

 left front. It was the rump of a feeding deer; and not 

 more than 150 yards away. 



Instantly we were creeping forward to shorten the dis- 

 tance and obtain a view. The shepherd advanced first, 

 and slowly raising his head, remained in that position 



P2 



