42 IBEX SHOOTING 



going now head foremost, and now tail 

 foremost, but always in that curiously limp 

 and boneless manner characteristic of a 

 dead body before time has stiffened its 

 limbs, and leaving a trail of blood over 

 the white surface of the snow. 



Yes, there he was, and no mistake, the 

 fine chap we had so longed to get. And 

 yet a moment later I had to look again to 

 see that there was no mistake about it, and 

 that I had not been dreaming. 



And I fell a-thinking how his head would 

 look in the hall of our home in England, 

 and how my people would prize it ; of the 

 way it would be pointed out to our friends 

 when they came to stay with us ; of the 

 yarns I would spin, believed by some, and 

 pretended to be believed by others ; of the 

 way the fellows in the mess would take it, 

 when the letter was read out to them in 

 the sultry plains of India, where they were 

 taking chloroform pegs to get an appetite 

 for breakfast, and how all would be pleased 

 in their various ways. I could imagine 



