328 A DAY IN KNO CKAMPHLE 



thought it was the stag.' ' That witch of a hind might 

 have played us the same trick day after day, Donald,' 

 I replied ; ' the sheep are all on the road for winter- 

 ing ; and I thought it the best way to kill the brute, so 

 as to give us a chance of making sure of that stag 

 before we go.' ' Well,' said Donald, ' it was well 

 done ;' and sure enough, the next day we found the 

 same stag in the same corrie, and though sheep were 

 going along the road as before, there was no hind 

 on the sky-line ; and I got an easy stalk at him, 

 knocking him over as dead as a rabbit, he nearly 

 smashing his horns in rolling down the rocks. He 

 proved to be a nice eight-pointer of some i6 stone 

 weight. 



The next day, the 30th of September, my beat was 

 in Knockamphle, but the wind was all wrong, being 

 due south, the very worst wind for that part of 

 Rhidoroch. However, it was my first visit to that 

 ground and unfortunately my last. William Suther- 

 land, now head-stalker of Rhidoroch, was then the 

 stalker on that beat ; and after we had spied the 

 ground, we came to the conclusion that we must 

 keep the south march the whole way up to his house, 

 several miles awa3% and endeavour to get round the 

 wind from the other marches. 



It was one of those very hot days when every fly 

 can be heard, and we had not gone more than a mile 

 and a half before I heard a grunt, or, rather, a roar, in 

 a little corrie which we were trying to get round. 

 Sutherland was in front of me, and on my * chirping ' 

 to him he turned round, and seeing me point to the place 

 where I heard the roar, said, ' There is no deer there. 

 I never saw a stag there ; it must be a bee humming 



