A LUCKY MISS 363 



If I had fired, they would in all probability have gone 

 down-hill out of shot, although we had ' stops ' placed 

 to prevent them ; but deer soon get used to such 

 tactics, and frequently break past a ' stop ' when they 

 will not go near the guns at any price. It was as well 

 that I did not give way to greed, for they went on 

 straight to the gun on the right, when he opened fire 

 on them with two rifles, and turned them back to me. 

 Then it was my turn to have at them, and between us 

 we killed our share. 



My horror may be imagined when a big, wide 

 ' caberslack ' (a head without points, and having only 

 brow-antlers), which I had kept my eye on from the 

 commencement, being wounded, and having gone to 

 lie down to die exactly between the two bothies which 

 were next to mine, I saw the gun in one of the bothies 

 rise and fire at the dying stag, exactly in a line with the 

 other bothy. No one in their senses would, I thought, 

 fire in such a reckless way, and, in fear and trembling 

 I awaited the result, which was, that the bullet struck 

 the top of Captain Bashford's bothy. That gentleman 

 jumped up, took off his cap, and waved it to show his 

 whereabouts. It was, if a ludicrous, a rather ghastly 

 episode, for Captain Bashford had a very close shave 

 of being shot through the head, as the bullet, so he 

 afterwards told me, struck the top of his bothy just 

 three inches above his head ; and just at the time he 

 waved his hat, he had the misfortune to turn some two 

 hundred stags towards us. Seeing him disappear with 

 a jerk, when it was too late to warn him, the mischief 

 having been done, I asked him why he did so so sud- 

 denly. He replied, ' It was the gillie who was with 

 me, who seized me by the coat-tails, saying, " Sit you 



