TWO VERY GOOD STAGS 105 



Boa shot him, and he rolled down a goodish bit 

 and unfortunately broke one of his horns; which 

 was a pity, as he had rather a good head, a 

 7-pointer with strong rough horns, clean of the 

 velvet, not very long but a fair spread; his weight 

 was 14 stone 7 pounds, so he was well worth the 

 trouble he gave us. My bullet had struck him 

 in the belly well backward, which accounts for 

 the droop in his hind-quarters when he struggled 

 to his feet. 



On regaining the ridge we began a gradual 

 descent on the other side to where Susan and 

 Sandy and the ponies were to meet us. The ground 

 was very rocky, and we had not gone far before 

 we spied two very good stags lying down in front 

 of us and rather below us. The ground was so 

 broken and there were so many large boulders 

 about that it was quite easy to crawl in and wait 

 for them to get up and decide which of the two 

 to go for; the one I could see best had the best 

 head. Boa thought the other was rather the 

 heavier stag; of course, I chose the former and 

 wriggled into position, and covered him with my 

 rifle. Almost immediately he sprang up and 

 stood facing me probably a hind or two which 

 we had not seen had got us. Boa said, "Can 

 you take him now ?" and the same second my 

 rifle rang out, and the stag turned and walked 

 away as though nothing had happened and was 

 behind a rock in two or three steps. I groaned and 



