30 SHORT STALKS 



as our quarry, and reached the bottom in safety. Thence a 

 shallow ravine led us easily to the top of the ridge under 

 which the mouflon lay, and following it along to the well- 

 noted point above them, and finding the wind there sure 

 and steady, we felt pretty safe of a fair shot. I crept 

 down the hill till I was nearly level with the rams, and 



could just make out a pair of horns, G , who was to 



take the shot, Q-ot straioiit above them and much nearer. 

 We stayed like this for twenty minutes waiting for them 

 to rise, when suddenly, without warning, rhyme, or reason, 

 they sprang from their beds and bounded down the slope 



without a pause. G got in a futile running shot. 1 



was too astonished even to do that. The cause remains to 

 this moment a mystery, but there is one hypothesis which 

 fits the case. We had left Gigi forty yards behind on the 

 other side of the ridge with strict injunctions not to move. 

 I hope I am not doing him an injustice, but it is just 

 possible that, as we had so long passed out of his sight, 

 overcome by curiosity, he came over the ridge to see what 

 had become of us. If he did so, it is certain that the rams 

 would see him before he saw them. When we returned 

 to the spot where we had left him, he wore an exceedingly 

 ionocent expression, but he did not inquire if the shot had 

 been successful. 



The ccmtoniera was not attractive by daylight. Even 

 at the worst of the weather we went out on the off chance, 

 and by sheer perseverance sometimes got a stroke of luck 

 and conquered fortune against odds. On one of the most 

 unpromising of days we struggled against the gale to our 

 favourite spying -place. On the ridge we found that, 

 even if the falling snow would have allowed a clear sight, 



