BAD LUCK. 63 



too far to visit often, gooral usually abounded. We hunted 

 there, however, for several days with little success. It seemed 

 as if bad luck were to attend this trip throughout, notwith- 

 standing the small offerings of copper coins, &c., old Jeetoo 

 had thought it necessary to make, for propitiating the spirit 

 of the mountain, at one of the rudely-built little Hindoo 

 temples that are so common on the higher peaks of the 

 middle ranges. My thoughts were constantly reverting to 

 the big stag, so we packed up and started to revisit his haunt, 

 and the same evening saw my little tent pitched near some 

 huts situated a mile or two below the place where we had 

 watched the kar. 



Next morning we were up with the dawn, and, after a stift' 

 pull, reached the upper edge of the forest, a short distance 

 above which the kar-hole was situated. Our intention was 

 to inspect this, in order to ascertain whether the stag had 

 resumed his nightly visits. Thinking it was now much too 

 late in the morning to expect him to be there, we took no 

 care in approaching the kar, when suddenly, from behind 

 the bushes close by it, out walked a lordly stag, followed by 

 a hind, and presented himself to our astonished gaze at little 

 over a hundred yards, neither of the animals, apparently, 

 having as yet seen or heard us. Another second and the 

 sight of my rifle was on the stag's shoulder, the report being 

 followed by a " thud," and before the echoes of the shot had 

 died away in the forest below, he had subsided in the long 

 grass, leaving only his splendid horns and the tips of his ears 

 above it Thinking him secured, I commenced deliberately 

 reloading the rifle, being at that moment in as happy a frame 

 of mind as a mortal can ever hope for in this world. But 

 alas ! I was doomed to bitter disappointment 



l'< rhaps it was the slight rattle of the ramrod in reloading 

 that attracted his attention, for his horns began to sway to 

 :uid fro, and almost iiniiK-<li;Ucly IK- jumprd up :iiul went off 

 at a lumbering gallop. I had just finished recapping, so, 



