SAEDIXIA AND ITS WILD SHEEP 17 



which commanded the slope from .a different angle, and 

 wlience I hoped he might see them. But while he was 

 gone I continued to watch the waving covert ])elow me, 

 and at last saw a little brown patch in the dark green. 

 This presently developed into the head and shoulders of a 

 nioullon. It was a long shut, but 1 had had plenty of 

 time to get my hand steady. She fell stone dead in her 

 tracks. At the sound another, darker and more conspicu- 

 ous, jumped up and stood for a moment ; I rammed in a 

 second cartrido-e, and as he moved off I felt sure I had hit 

 him. As a matter of fact, he had received as deadly a 

 wound as the other, and had fallen within ten yards, but 

 the covert was so dense that I was some time finding him. 

 This was a handsome young male. The other, L regret to 

 say, was a female, Init it was the first one I saw, and 

 though this chance came thus early, I could not tell that 1 

 should liave another. After this we always let the ewes 

 alone. The natives make no such distinction, but fire a 

 charge of slugs into the l)rowu at short range, as they are 

 driven bv the paste. Two of those subsequently killed 

 by us had old wounds thus given. 



So trium]iliant a l)eginning was beyond the dreams of 

 avarice. liici(h'iitnll\' it raised us severnl pegs in th(^ 

 estimation of the natives, and proved to them ihc ttlicacy 

 of our method. The great ditHculty was to teadi the im- 

 portance of finding the game before the game found them. 

 But from tliis time Celestin's superior skill was recognised, 

 and brute force boweil to science. W'hih,' at lunclicou under 



a clump of fine ilex, F made a clever spy of a small 



hci'd (.[' mouHon contnining some good malos, on the 

 farther side of tlif valley. Tlicy were lying in some thin 



c 



