288 SHORT STALKS 



therefore, soon learned to keep pretty close to heel when we 

 approached a village. In the plains " Smoke's" heavy fur 

 coat was unsiiited to the climate, and his drooping spirits 

 were reflected in the attitude of ears and tail. On the 

 hills all this was changed. His eager face was the picture 

 of alertness, and the curl of his grand old tail, like a l)ig 

 steel watch-spring, showed that he respected himself and 

 knew what was expected of him. In a day or two he was 

 familiar with all tlie signs of game, and the roar of a stag 

 obviously caused the same shiver in the small of his hack 

 as it did in mine. When he heard it, he would cock his 

 head on one side, and think how nice a broiled steak 

 would be. Then he would look up at me, and say quite 

 plainly : " If they were only in an open place now, about 

 forty yards oft', and feeding." At night he regarded him- 

 self as our protector from all kinds of vermin, and lay at 

 our feet until the first signs of dawn appeared, and I told 

 him that I was about to perform my toilet, — a very brief 

 one, by the way, on a frosty morning. 



At the first sioii of dawn on the mornino- after our 

 arrival we were ready for the start, but the cold steam 

 caused by the storm of the night before, settled round us 

 in a thick fog. At last the sun dispersed it, and we started 

 in opposite directions. Scarcely five hundred yards from 

 camp Celestin and I found a little opening on a ridge 

 where grrass and herl^s o;rew rank and strono; — a favourite 

 feeding ground, f )r it was tracked in every direction. 

 Nor were those proofs wanting which, we are told, the 

 harhourer of old was wont to 



" OiTer on bended knee 

 To the Ladie of hitih deuree." 



