70 ERCHLESS AND FARLEY, 1918 



my snigger seen, and told Ross to lead on; and 

 we had a rather difficult crawl and creep, and 

 finally got to about 200 yards, and found we could 

 get no farther. But the best stag in the herd 

 happened to offer a tempting shot, so I fired and 

 brought it off this time, and a very fine 11 -pointer 

 was brought to his knees, and I was able to get 

 quite close up and finish him off. He was a grand 

 stag, with splendid rough, stout horns, and a 

 31-inch span; he weighed 15 stone 12 pounds next 

 day, as, of course, we could not get him in that 

 night, not having the pony with us. Ross was 

 very pleased, and congratulated me on the shot, 

 and our success revived Susan and me wonderfully, 

 which was just as well, as it was a long, long way 

 to the car, and I made it longer by having two 

 shots on the way home, both of which we thought 

 hit the mark all right, so we had to search a bit 

 for the beasts, but could find neither; so I hope 

 we were wrong, and that I had missed, as they 

 were longish shots, and it was pretty dark and 

 nothing to weep over in the missing. It was 

 6 o'clock when we got to the top, and I saw Susan 

 was pretty baked, and I was rather wondering 

 how we were going to get her home; however, 

 she stuck to it with her wonderful grit, and at 

 her own pace, and Sandy and I did not have to 

 carry her, and we were down soon after 7; and 

 there was much rejoicing at the treble event, 

 despite the fact that it made my number two over. 



