SAMBEE STALKING. 59 



part of the watercourse which nearest approached 

 them. Could the nullah be attained, it appeared 

 sufficiently stony and rugged to afford cover to the 

 stalker, who might then, with some difficulty, be 

 able to make his way up it till he reached a point 

 within fair shot. 



Norman thought it quite practicable, as the wind 

 was from the deer ; so, telling his companion to sit 

 where he was for the present, he waited till the 

 sarnber had become hidden by one patch, and 

 then stealthily and swiftly glided towards it. That 

 reached, he had again to wait till the herd passed 

 on and were lost behind another. In this way, 

 making rushes from clump to clump, he managed 

 to gain the nullah, but at a point still too far to risk 

 a shot. The game had been slowly feeding parallel 

 with the water-course, and away from the spot he 

 had reached. He easily made his way for the next 

 fifty yards, but after that the nullah turned partly 

 towards the deer, and it was only by crouching very 

 low, and availing himself of every boulder of rock 

 or bush, or rise in the bank, that he managed at last 

 to get within about a hundred yards of the nearest 

 of the herd a hind. The big stag was some twenty 

 yards further away. 



As he watched them through an aperture between 

 two boulders of rock in the middle of the water- 



