THE STAG IN THE RUTTING SEASON. 37 



shout to the other, ( Da liegt er schon V ' Why there he 

 lies V On hearing this, as you may suppose, I was all 

 excitement, and cried out to ask what it was lying there. 

 f Why the stag, to be sure/ was the answer. For they 

 thought this was the stag they had been ordered to come 

 for. At these words down I rushed to the spot, almost 

 mad with expectation ; and there indeed lay the second 

 stag, with a shot that had gone right through his lungs, 

 the bullet passing out on the other side." 



"And was he a good stag?" I inquired; "as good as 

 the other ? What did his antlers mark ?" 



w He only had eight points ; but he was a splendid fel- 

 low, and hardly less in size than the other. His whole 

 body bore traces of the late battle. Everywhere were 

 long furrows in his coat, where the terrible antlers of the 

 other had scraped away the hair, as they were thrust 

 forwards with deadly intent ; and as to his head, it was 

 scarred and torn and marked all over, bearing proof of 

 the intensity of this as well as former battles. 



" The body of the one I shot first had some terrible 

 wounds in the neck, caused no doubt by the thrust of 

 those fearful pointed brow- antlers, which his foe brought 

 to bear on him with such fury as he lay helpless on the 

 ground. Near the fresh bullet-wound was an old wound 

 also, received evidently in some former similar encoun- 

 ter. Both, as I said, were old stags, and had mea- 

 sured their strength with many a mighty foe. The one 

 shot last, however, was evidently accustomed to lord it 

 over all the others in his domain ; and, though no doubt 

 a bully, possessed notwithstanding a courage which no 

 attack ever daunted. The shot he received from me he 

 certainly believed to have been inflicted by the other 

 stag j hence his rage, and furious attack on his enemy 

 as he lay prostrate on the ground." 



