108 ANGUISH. 



directly above us, with his head and shoulders showing over 

 it, his splendid knotted horns sweeping grandly backward 

 against the sky. He seemed so close and so large that I 

 thought it unnecessary to raise any sight. Cautiously placing 

 my cap on the top of a rock as a rest for the rifle, I aimed 

 point-blank at his chest, fully expecting to see him the next 

 moment roll lifeless from his perch. But, to my amaze- 

 ment and concern, he jumped up and disappeared like 

 magic, before I had time to think of giving him the con- 

 tents of the second barrel. When we next sighted him, he 

 was well out of range, though I chanced another shot at him 

 as he now took his way slowly but steadily up the moun- 

 tain-side. 



My anguish at that moment is impossible to describe. 

 An almost irresistible inclination to fling the empty rifle 

 after him suddenly seized me, as I helplessly gazed at his 

 retreating form. To make matters worse, my companions 

 would keep repeating, " Oho ! what a pity ! he was such a 

 big khel ! " accompanied by that well-known but indescrib- 

 able sound made with the tongue and teeth, indicative of 

 disappointment, thereby aggravating me to such a degree 

 that I fear I must have used very hard language towards 

 them. 



Still clinging to the faint hope that the ibex might per- 

 haps show symptoms of being wounded, as he had separated 

 from the herd, we continued to watch him as he traversed 

 a broad snow-field, on which, in the distance, he looked like 

 a fly on a whitewashed wall, until he at length disappeared 

 over the crest of the range, where it was to us inaccessible. 

 My attention had been so much engrossed by the big buck 

 that I failed to observe what had become of his smaller 

 companions. 



With a heavy heart I now climbed up to inspect the 

 place where the ibex had been lying, when the distance to 

 it was found to be much greater than it had at first ap- 

 peared. The bullet had struck just under the spot from 



