246 



8H0ET STALKS 



With that short gallop peculiar to an animal shot in the 

 heart, he turned and fled, ))ut fell and died on the ledge ; 

 turned half over, slid a yard or two and shot out of my 



view. No one uttered a 

 sound for a few minutes, 

 hoping that the second ibex 

 must follow the same way ; 

 l)ut whether he had found 

 some means of escape from 

 the trap, which was beyond 

 the power of his less agile 

 companion, or whether he 

 had left it l^efore we closed 

 the door, I do not know. 

 AVhen it was clear that 

 there was nothing more to 

 come, we woke the echoes. 

 The poor old veteran had 

 fallen fully five hundred 

 feet before he struck, and 

 with such force that his body 

 bounded fully as far again down 

 the slope. Of course the horns 

 were broken but were recovered 

 after a short search among the rocks. He was eleven years 

 old by the rings of his horns, and weighed ten stone clean, 

 or about the size of a red hind. Ilis meat was the driest 

 and toughest I ever broke my teeth against. The accident 

 to his fetlock joint had apparently happened many years 

 before. Tliere was a sound of revelrv in the hut that 

 night, and the Mayor danced his stateliest measure. 



