THE ISLAND OF HITTEREN 57 



and he was out of sight. The second stag dashes full 

 gallop down the burn, but before he turns has 

 shown his broadside in time for a quick second barrel. 

 He disappears, and our sportsman returns quietly to 

 his post, leaving one stag dead upon the ground, and 

 with, somehow, a feeling of confidence that when he 

 pulled the second trigger there was hair on the fore- 

 sight. 



Hardly is he seated, when the whip-like crack 

 of a new Mannlicher rifle sounds across the lake. 

 The clicking of the breech action is plainly audible 

 as three more shots from the post on his right follow 

 in quick succession. Surely another stag has died. 

 But now the drive must be nearly over. A driver 

 emerges from under the hill, when suddenly the thud 

 of a galloping deer is plainly audible, and the next 

 moment a heavy stag, with lumbering gallop, dashes 

 into view across the glade and to the left. It is 

 a fair running chance at 100 yards, and there is 

 just time for two quick barrels. The second shot 

 was certainly high and over ; but how about the 

 first ? Down the hill he dashes and out of sight. 

 The sportsman's heart sinks low, when a welcome 

 splash sounds from the burn. He has fallen dead in 

 a pool just out of sight, shot through the heart a 

 noble ten-point stag. In this case a cunning old 

 stager had been outwitted. Disturbed by the drivers 

 from under the f jeld on the left, he was coming on, 

 when the shots from two different directions, with 

 their ringing echoes, had puzzled him. He had lain 

 down, as a stag in doubt will always do, and finally, 

 seeing no deer turn back, had come forward just in front 

 of the advancing drivers. A single returning deer would 

 have effectually turned him back through the line. 



