130 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



It was not till long afterwards that I thought 

 of all this. At the time I could only watch him 

 slowly, and a little wearily it seemed to me, move 

 down towards the eastern marshes and disappear. 

 And then — well, then I got up, went to release 

 my dogs, and returned home. I have blamed 

 myself since for not at once returning with proper 

 cartridges, but the double journey involved a 

 twelve-mile walk, and who knows how far a stag, 

 moving at that time of day, might have gone on ? 



Need I say how soon after daybreak next 

 morning I was on the spot again, glass in hand, 

 scanning every corrie and hillside in vain. The 

 following day to that I brought the dogs, and, 

 keeping them close in to myself, tried from its 

 lee edge every possible nook and corner for miles, 

 again in vain. So it went on for nearly a week, 

 till E said she never saw me at all from day- 

 break till dark, but of that stag never a trace did 

 I see. I did once see in a damp hollow what I 

 will swear was the slot of a deer, but, as I opine, 

 that of a hind. If I am right, my stag — why I 

 call him my stag I don't know — was, perhaps, not 

 on a bootless errand after all. 



It was whilst engaged in this search that I 

 had the opportunity of observing one of the most 



however, much nearer to Montenegro than it is to Bosnia (the 

 distance being some fifty miles to the former), but of the game 

 in that kingdom I know nothing. 



