210 A TWINGE OF REMORSE. 



more and he is stretched on the grass, kicking furiously in 

 his death-throes. 



Dropping the beast on the spot was indeed a bit of rare 

 luck, and was accounted for by a splinter of the shell, which 

 struck him rather high behind the shoulder, injuring his 

 spine.' I only give my good old shikaree his just due when 

 I say that getting a shot at this beast was entirely owing to 

 the thorough knowledge of his calling he possessed. I have 

 sometimes met sportsmen in India who affect to scorn the 

 assistance and advice of a native stalker. But in doing so 

 I think they are mistaken; for with their limited know- 

 ledge of the ground it stands to reason that they cannot 

 work it with the same advantage as the native shikaree who 

 has known all its features and peculiarities since his youth. 

 I have known others who imagine they can walk down the 

 paharee in his native mountains. With his oriental polite- 

 ness he may flatter them into such a belief ; but given any 

 distance from five miles to a hundred over a rough mountain- 

 ous country, with a good reward for the hill-villager at the 

 end of it, and then see who will win the race — the bare- 

 footed, agile mountaineer, or his white competitor, however 

 athletic, in his boots ? — the paharee, and even a very ordi- 

 nary one, " I guess." Few shikarees are, however, of much 

 use to an experienced hand except in their native neigh- 

 bourhood. 



My satisfaction, as I stood admiring the grand proportions 

 of the fallen stag, was slightly mingled with remorse when 

 I thought of the rather mean advantage we had taken of 

 the unsuspecting animal in our method of circumventing 

 him. The beam of his horns was only 5 J inches in girth, 

 but this was compensated for by a span of 33 inches within i 

 the bend. We bled and gralloched him then and there ; 

 but as darkness was fast setting in, we left two men to 

 guard him at night from those hirsute thieves the bears. 



During the night I was awakened by the hoarse bellow- 

 ing of a stag in the direction of a trag on an open spot 



