278 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



looks back. As I fire he gives a bound, seemingly 

 hit, and begins going slowly uphill. My second 

 bullet is high. Now he is two hundred yards 

 or more away, a distance at which a black powder 

 *500 cannot be relied on, but going so slowly 

 that I feel sure it is only a matter of a few 

 yards before he will be down. Happy thought ; 

 the Mannlicher as a cripple stopper ! It is loaded, 

 so I raise the Lyman sight a trifle and fire. 



Before the echoes have died the stag stops, 

 staggers, and comes tumbling down the hill. In 

 another quarter of a minute we were examining 

 our quarry a heavy beast, with massive antlers 

 both rough and black, and points hard and white 

 as ivory. " By the way, Ramzana, where did 

 my first bullet hit him ? " We turned the beast 

 over. There was the Mannlicher hole right 

 enough, small and clean, no exit. The bullet 

 had broken into smithereens inside him as it 

 should, but our careful examination showed no 

 wound by the big bullet. My first shot had 

 missed him clean, that was evident, and I realised 

 with a sort of shock how near I had been to 

 losing my first stag altogether ! But how about 

 the bound he gave when I fired, and his slow 

 pace away? It was certainly odd, but might 

 be explained by the wind of the bullet and the 

 beast dazed by the report, and not certain of 



