IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 129 



Moreover, on the shoulder and side next me, 

 unless my eyes deceived me, he had something 

 like fresh scars, and altogether he looked as if 

 he had been caught in the harem of some bigger 

 brother, and had had more justice than mercy 

 meted out to him. The notorious Mr. Elwes, 

 M.F.H., would have hesitated to put that haunch 

 before a guest; but it wasn't that I wanted — it 

 was his head. Herodias never longed more for 

 that of the Baptist. I could count it now : brow, 

 bay, two on top, and tray one side — nine points 

 in all. What we should call a fair young stag, 

 in fact, though continental sportsmen are so sur- 

 feited with fourteen-, sixteen-, and even twenty- 

 pointers that they will hardly look at a royal, 

 and this stag missed three points to a full head. 

 But then it was the place he was in. A Dalmatian 

 stag ! No other sportsman, I believe, can show 

 such a trophy. True, I was right on the Herze- 

 govinian frontier ; but I don't think I ever heard 

 of deer so far west in that Turkish province, 

 where, indeed, there are precious few anywhere. 

 Had he come from Bosnia, this gaunt wanderer ? 

 Not that I fancy they are by any means so very 

 plentiful even there as they are in some of the 

 real Austrian provinces — Styria, for instance.* 



* Since writing these lines, I have ascertained that red deer 

 are so rare in both the Administered Provinces as to bo 

 practically non-existent. The exact spot I am writing of is, 



K 



