294 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



rather thinned here. I know that buck well : he is a 

 most cunning fellow, and so shy that it is the most diffi- 

 cult thing in the world to get near him. Bauer shot 

 at him once, but missed : he has been shot at too by 

 the poachers, so that he is as wary as an old fox." 



" Is that his usual haunt where we saw him today ?" 



" Why he changes his place pretty often. Sometimes 

 he is opposite on the left-hand side, when no cattle are 

 there ; sometimes he will wander round to the Fricker. 

 He ought not to have gone away just now, far below 

 him as we were ; but that comes from being shot at so 

 often." 



We looked at our watch, and found that we had fifty 

 minutes to get to the place where I was to stand ; by 

 that time he whom we left behind would be on the 

 move. Twenty minutes— forty — fifty minutes — at last 

 we are there, but it was good climbing to accomplish it 

 in that time. Just above where we stood an isolated 

 crag rose from the steep side of the mountain. " There 

 you will take your stand," said Neuner; "you have a 

 good view below and above you, and if the buck is not 

 gone he will be sure to pass down here when he hears 

 footsteps coming up the other side. Look ! you see 

 those loose stones : he will cross those, and you can fire 

 as is most convenient, either then or as he passes lower 

 down. But all that you know without my telling you ; 

 so clamber up and choose your place, and keep a sharp 

 look-out, for by this time my comrade will be on the 

 move." And thus saying he left me, to take his stand 

 somewhat higher, nearer the summit. 



With my heels well in the earth, so as not to slip 

 forward, I sat down, rifle in hand, where I could com- 

 mand the depth immediately below me on my right, 

 and at the same time see far up the mountain — indeed 



