94 BENULA AND FARLEY, 1920 



he got away and we never found him, though we 

 searched long and diligently. On the 31st Susan 

 and her luggage came north, and said I to myself, 

 said I, "Now the luck will change"; and sure 

 enough on the 2nd of August, Thow, the new 

 second keeper on Farley, arrived panting and 

 dishevelled at Balblair about 7 p.m., saying there 

 was a good stag feeding on the bare bit above 

 John's house. I rushed out to find Parker and get 

 the car, but the former was nowhere to be found 

 till quarter to 8, so it was 8.15 before we were up 

 at Farley. John was still waiting for me, though it 

 was beginning to get dark, and we scrambled 

 very cautiously up the burn about quarter of a 

 mile east of his house, but could see no sign of the 

 stag. Then, suddenly, about quarter to 9 the 

 beast jumped up out of some ferns about 100 j^ards 

 behind us ! and off he went top speed in the 

 direction of the saw-mill. It was too dark to risk 

 a shot under such conditions, so sadly and sorrow- 

 fully I smothered down some swear words and 

 we mutually condoled with each other on the 

 bad luck of being half an hour too late. We 

 must have passed him quite close, and had the 

 light been a little better we must have seen him 

 before we got up to him. However, " all's well 

 that ends well," and the very next evening, 

 accompanied by our lucky jeune fille of the hills, 

 we were up there by half -past 6 ; and repeating our 

 scramble up the burn I suddenly saw our friend 



