SECOND DEATH. 245 



and I had not been ensconced there five minutes more, 

 when the herd, alarmed at the sight of Gillespie, came 

 trotting along in my direction. When however they 

 were still about three hundred yards off, they suddenly 

 seemed to wind me, and all stood still ; then changing 

 their course, they began to make for a slight break in 

 a line of cliffs below them, down which they clearly 

 intended to go. 



Here then was a critical moment. This was my 

 last chance, I fully knew, for the day ; and the deer 

 would very soon be out of shot. So putting up " the 

 sight" of my rifle to 300 yards, and aiming very 

 deliberately at the hind, I watched for the moment 

 when she should pause ere commencing the descent 

 through the narrow pass, and just at that moment 

 pulled the trigger. From the manner in which she 

 sprang forward I was quite certain that she was hit; 

 and reloading, I hastened forward, to find her prostrate 

 at the bottom of the pass and quite dead. The ball 

 being fired from above, had entered her neck just 

 between the shoulder blades, and passing through, 

 came out in the very centre of her chest. 



This was a satisfactory finale to an eventful day, and 

 we now started for home, glad that we could report so 

 important an accession to the larder. 



Before closing the present chapter I shall record an 

 anecdote or two which I have lately heard on good 

 authority with regard to the habits and instincts of 

 rats, and which may not be without interest to the 

 naturalist. 



We all know the saying that rats, with a prescience 

 not possessed by humanity, desert the ship which is 

 leaving port for the voyage on which she will be lost. 

 And a late officer in Her Majesty's Navy once assured 



