THE FOREST MONARCH. 281 



brushwood in the hollow. Onward they slowly come, until 

 the mightiest stag we have yet seen is leisurely walking across 

 an open slope below us, and within eighty yards. There is 

 not much time for a steady aim, as in a few seconds he will 

 again be out of sight. Feeling certain that the shoulder of 

 a brute the size of an ox can hardly be missed at so short 

 a range, I confidently let drive at him. He seems to half- 

 stumble on faster for a few steps, and then resuming his 

 original pace, slowly disappears behind some high bushes. 



" Come this way, quick ! " says Ramzan, starting off at a 

 run ; " he'll cross the ridge lower down, as he's making for the 

 wood behind it." There is no stopping to recharge the empty 

 barrel of my muzzle-loader, for we have only just time to 

 run down the ridge and head the animal before the white 

 tips of his horns are again in sight. How I gloat on those 

 massive, wide-spreading beams and twelve long tines as they 

 draw nearer and nearer ! I fancy I can see those antlers 

 now, as I write, swaying to and fro, as the seemingly wounded 

 stag labours slowly up the hillside, until he is actually within 

 fifty yards of where we are crouching low among the tall ferns. 

 As I put up the rifle nothing is to be seen before its sights 

 but a broad brown shoulder, and from the fact of there being 

 only space for at least a mile beyond the deer, the loud smack 

 made by the shell cannot possibly have told on anything but 

 him. On receiving the shot he stops short, turns his head 

 slowly towards us, and after standing for a few seconds 

 steadfastly gazing at us, continues his course at a canter 

 towards the ridge, and crossing it just below us, disappears 

 into the wood beyond it, exactly as my crafty old companion 

 h;ul foretold. 



" There's not such another hangiil in all these forests," says 

 Ramzan hurriedly, as he impatiently assists me to reload. 

 "He's badly wounded, so we're sure to come up with him in 

 the wood." Never before have I seen the old man soexcitr.l, 

 ami I ft-el quite confident myself that the stag is mine. Hut. 



