THE CONVENTIONAL "THUD." 217 



on wliicli we could distinctly pick up the stag's slot, we 

 should soon have lost the track. Moreover, the beast was 

 evidently now travelling pretty fast and roaring very seldom. 



We had tracked through a dark strip of pine- wood, and 

 were about to emerge on to an open undulating bit of grass 

 beyond it, when we caught sight of the stag standing there 

 some distance ahead. I was very anxious to "loose" at 

 him, for the light was fast fading ; but as he had again re- 

 sumed his roaring at pretty regular intervals, Eamzan sug- 

 gested that we should try to get closer. Quickly we made 

 a circuit through some cover, and contrived to come up with 

 the animal as he stood for a few moments within some 

 eighty yards, slightly below us, and broadside on. But, 

 alas ! the short Indian twilight had now failed us, and I 

 could no longer see the fore-sight of the rifle, for, unfor- 

 tunately, it was not silvered, as the near end of the sporting 

 fore-sight should always be ; so I took the best aim I could 

 at the shadowy form of the stag without it. The bullet told 

 on him somewhere with a smart " thwack," — a term, I think, 

 better suited to the sound than the conventional " thud," 

 which as often denotes mud as meat. The deer gave a 

 sudden spring, turned short round, and plunging down the 

 hill, disappeared in a deep wooded gorge. To follow him in 

 the dark would have been worse than useless ; we therefore 

 made the best of a long trudge back to camp. Fortunately 

 the clouds had broken, so we had some glimpses of moon- 

 light to help us through the gloomy pine-woods. 



At peep of dawn we were off again, and spent several 

 hours in trying to follow up the stag of the previous even- 

 ing, as we felt certain he was hard hit. There was no blood 

 on his track ; but this might have been accounted for by 

 the closing up of the small orifice made by a '450 bullet, or 

 by the shell hitting high in the animal's body, and bursting 

 up without penetrating right through it. Eamzan, who was 

 rather conservative in his ideas, had already suggested that 

 the new-fangled " nasala ke golee " (medicine-bullet), as he 



