218* STALKING A STAG. 



termed my vaunted shell, might not be very certain in its 

 effect, and I was beginning to think he was right. 



The cold at night had become so bitter up here that the 

 camp was moved to a warmer locality below. The stags, 

 too, had apparently gone lower down, for they were now less 

 often heard high up. We resolved, however, to take another 

 turn over the higher ground before descending in the even- 

 ing to our new quarters. Our breakfasts had been dis- 

 cussed, and we were all lounging lazily on a wooded spur 

 when Eamzan, who was always on the alert, said he thought 

 he heard a hangul calling far away up on the hill above. 

 So long a time elapsed without a repetition of the sound, 

 that I thought he must have been mistaken. " Hark ! there 

 he is again," says the old man, as this time the wild cadence, 

 mellowed by distance, comes distinctly over the hill behind us. 

 As the ground above is pretty open, the chances of a stalk 

 are in our favour, so we at once commence working up- 

 wards. After a long and stiff pull we reach a ridge over- 

 looking a deep sort of corrie full of dense brushwood, from 

 whence the bellowing now comes repeatedly in hoarse 

 volumes. After intently listening for some time, Eamzan 

 gives his opinion that, judging from the approaching sound 

 and the direction of the wind, the beast will very likely 

 cross the open hill-face below us. No sooner has he given 

 vent to his prediction than another lusty roar comes from al- 

 most directly below, and the long, white-tipped, upper tines of 

 the stag appear moving among the brushwood in the hollow. 

 Onward they slowly come, until the mightiest stag we have 

 yet seen is leisurely walking across an open slope below us, 

 and within eighty yards. There is not much time for a 

 steady aim, as in a few seconds he will again be out of 

 sight. Feeling certain that the shoulder of a brute the size 

 of an ox can hardly be missed at so short a range, I con- 

 fidently let drive at him. He seems to half-stumble on 

 faster for a few steps, and then resuming his original pace, 

 slowly disappears behind some high bushes. 



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