ROE-HUNTING. 61 



entitled them to a supper. We were therefore quite con- 

 vinced that they would settle to the evening meal at the first 

 convenient halting-spot. 



Giving his gun to the keeper, my son scouted forward with 

 a telescope, and from screen of rock or tree scrutinised the 

 hiding corries or scrubby patches which might possibly shelter 

 our game. Crawling on hand and knee to the pinnacle of a 

 wide look-out, we saw his attention fixed. Up goes the glass, 

 to remain steady for a few seconds, when it was shut up with 

 a satisfied jerk, and he descended on all-fours. Before a word 

 was spoken I felt sure the chase was at length happily safe. 



The three roes were greedily eating among some stunted 

 birches skirting a mountain brook, which, from the direction 

 of the wind and the lay of the feeding-ground, could not have 

 been more aptly placed. Leaving the keeper with dogs and 

 telescope on the top of the mound, the shooters mapped out 

 so wide a flank movement as to prevent the possibility of 

 being either seen or winded by the quarry, now at last care- 

 less and secure. 



The various eccentric turns and doubles of our game had 

 again placed us close to the spot where we first found them 

 at noon, and with so fair a prospect of coming to close 

 quarters at the end of the day, no wonder that the fourth un- 

 sociable buck was quite overlooked. Scarcely had we quitted 

 the keeper and dived for concealment among the rugged peaks 

 and scaurs of the mountain-face, when " the solitary " burst 

 from his lair among the whins right athwart our course ; but 

 scarcely had he got into his stride when a shot from my son's 

 gun paralysed the fleet limbs that had almost saved him, and, 

 rolling over the crag, he lay powerless at its foot. 



Our first act was to cast an eye on the look-out. There 

 he was, steady as the rock he leaned on, neither the shot nor 

 the fall of the roe having slackened for an instant his atten- 

 tion from the watch we had .set him. Our deer was soon 

 despatched, cleaned, and hung on the nearest tree. We then 



