340 SHORT STALKS 



home, I heard behind, and quite close to us, a kind of 

 croak, which is the sound the deer make when they are 

 startled. This deer must have followed us, having prob- 

 ably seen something moving in the valley and mistaken 

 us for his relations. He was wildly alarmed when he 

 found out the gaucherie of Avhicli he had been guilty, and 

 went off like the wind, so that our rifles could not be got 

 out of their cases before he was out of range. 



The next day was a blank, and the next after that I 

 was obliged to stay in the scpfcn- and nurse myself, for the 

 cold I had contracted the first night had become serious, 

 and I dared not face the biting wind on the high ground, 

 till it got better. I improved my knowledge of the 

 lano-uaoe, by consultino- the sceto- woman about the 

 economy of cheese-making, Ijut most of that weary day 

 was spent within the four walls of our windowless hut. 

 There was a small quantity of rice among our stores, 

 and I taught myself how to make a rice pudding, by an 

 exhaustive series of experiments carried out upon infini- 

 tesimal portions of rice. I extemporised a Turkish bath, 

 by raking out the fire, and sitting in the fireplace, while 

 I exhausted our literature by the light that came down 

 the chimney. I dumped the holes in the wall, which 

 occupied more of the time than anything else. Tailoring, 

 cobbling, wood-carving were successively tried by the 

 meagre light — anything to pass the time — but the bitterest 

 pill of all was, when after fourteen long hours, Kenny came 

 back, for I heard that I had missed the most interesting 

 and successful stalk of our trip. 



One of the men, whom we had sent into the valley 

 two days before, had told us, on his return, that he had 



