364 SHORT STALKS 



metres. That was, I tliink, an exaggeration, and tliere 

 was nothing to l)oast of in the fact that it was my turn 

 to have a stroke of luck, and that I succeeded in liittino; 

 the one I aimed at. He rose, stumbled a few steps, 

 then lay down, and I had no difficulty in ultimately re- 

 covering him, though I had to shoot him again. But in 

 the meanwhile the strange part of it was that his com- 

 panion, wdio lay within two yards of him, never moved to 

 the shot, though the echoes of it reverberated round him 

 like thunder. Loading again I aimed at this sleeping- 

 beauty, but hiiled to find the mark a second time. This 

 bullet must have splashed the snow all over him and 

 he fled like the wind, but even now he did not know 

 whence the sound came, and galloped straight towards us 

 round the face of the cliff. I thouoht I was sure of him 

 too, but he followed a little cornice below me, and the 

 overliano-in(T elifl" hid him from view, so that I never saw 

 him again. I have no doubt that the indifference of this 

 izzard to the sound was due to his mistakino- it for ftillino- 

 rocks. There had been a heavy fall of snow, which was 

 melting very rapidly at the time, causing big stones to 

 crash downwards every few minutes. 



I do not wish it to be thouo-ht that tliere was 

 anything extraordinary in the long and fortunate shots 

 which I have recorded. Every sportsman can recall 

 plenty such, and there is no particular credit to be attached 

 to them. Some would say the contrary. But I have 

 selected such instances for description because, however 

 nuudi they may have been due to chance, the triumph at 

 the time was sweet, and made the impression of those 

 days more vivid than others. 



