192 EAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



"Jose^ mind you liave the valdiviano (cliarqui soup) 

 ready by that time. 1^11 take this direction ; '' and off 

 he rode towards some plain country that probably con- 

 tained all the pacharones in the neighbourhood. My 

 object, however, was to get some handurrias, which I 

 knew would " rile '' the doctor pretty considerably ; as 

 for the plover, I knew that with that knowing old Buce- 

 phalus of his I had no chance with him. He had not 

 gone a hundred yards when an immense flock of pac/ia- 

 Tones came circling round, and we marked them down 

 about half a mile off in the middle of a plain. ^' Fair 

 play, doctor ! I think there^s room for the pair of us ;'' 

 and we galloped up to within one hundred and fifty yards 

 of them. We brought our horses to a halt, concealing 

 our guns, and when within forty yards fired into the 

 yellow of ^em, and as they got up we gave them the 

 lefts, cutting a lane through them like a charge of grape- 

 shot ; the flock divided, part flying off, and the smaller 

 half circling round us again. My breech-loader came in 

 well here, as before the doctor could load I had a couple 

 of cartridges in, and gave them a second dose in no time; 

 but if I had the best of the doctor in this respect, he 

 certainly got to windward of me in a much more important 

 one, for my steed, on my approaching to mount him, 

 uttered an extraordinary sound, and coolly galloped back 

 to the farm, with my magazine and all ! 



" Come along, Oliver ! '^ shouted the doctor, derisively, 

 as he mounted his charger and went pounding by me 

 like a second Jorrocks after the plover ; " come along, 

 my boy ! '' and I had the intense mortification of seeing 

 him quietly gallop up to the plover, dismount, and have 

 a couple of shots ; and there was I without a cartridge 

 in my pocket, except the two in my gun. There was 



