MY FIRST IBEX 43 



Sammy saying, " Great fun, I should think, 

 if you could only ride it" ; George, " What 

 a pity it is such lonely work " ; Peter, with 

 eyes twinkling with pleasure, and the re- 

 membrance of his own exploits, but saying 

 only, " Really, a forty-incher, what a lucky 

 chap" ; and Gobby's, " I'm glad the boy has 

 got a good one " ; while Mac would merely 

 look delighted and say nothing. Badger 

 was, I had heard, shooting bison and tiger 

 in Central India how I hoped he would 

 get a real good head ! All the others would 

 be away, but if they . . . C-r-r-r-a-a-ck ! 

 C-r-r-r-a-a-ck ! came ringing from the big 

 nullah on my right, that peculiar noise which 

 we have all heard when skating, which 

 rings round and round the edge of the lake 

 as the ice disengages itself from the sides. 

 C-r-r-r-a-a-ck ! C-r-r-r-a-a-ck ! came the 

 echo back, multiplied from the hills. I felt 

 my arm seized by Lassoo, but he said only, 

 "Now look!" and looking, I saw, and 

 stood aghast. The whole of the snow in 

 that valley in front of us seemed to move, 



