TWO AT ONE STALK. 53 



the Captain had already arrived. The Chief had killed a good stag, 

 the Captain one more. They had gone together in another direction 

 from that which I had taken. It was not hard to find topics of con- 

 versation that night. The stags of this and other days had their lives 

 and deaths recounted. 



I thought I should have dreamed of deer all night long, but the 

 moment my head touched the pillow, or just after, there was Albert 

 with the hot water, and another dav had come. 



And now I spent a day on the moors, walking up grouse. A tall, 

 slow, broad-shouldered, black browed gillie, by name John Mclntyre 

 went with me. John was supposed to know where the grouse were 

 lying, but between us 'twas little enough information he had upon that 

 point. He had a deer stalker's instinct, though a slow fellow, and 

 every chance he got was spent spying for stags on the further hills, 

 though we were outside of the forest proper. 



But we had a fine day with an occasional grouse; enough for sport's 

 sake; a black cock or two and one mallard duck, that got up behind 

 me from a little burn hole not much bigger than a bandbox. I surely 

 had no complaint of that day. The sun shone for most of the time, 

 and the occasional showers only emphasized the hours when they were 

 absent. It made a good change from the stalking. 



The next day I was to stalk with the Chief in quite a new direction. 

 I heard the winds shrieking around the Lodge when I awoke and by 

 the time breakfast was over, looking out of the rest room window 

 toward the Loch, one might have been pardoned for thinking the gale 

 was going to blow it dry. The air was so full of water it seemed 

 to move in solid sheets. 



Another guest had come the night before, Lord B . I dubbed him 



the Warrior, and he and the Captain, after finding every excuse 

 imaginable, from the necessity of re-hobnailing shoes to writing im- 

 portant business letters, finally took the trail for their appointed stalks. 

 The Chief and I actually had some things to do but we stretched 

 them out rather than face the blast. At last in sheer shame we could 

 wait no longer. 



In one way it was good luck that the deer in the Sanctuary were 

 in sight of us as we came up the burn, for after topping the ridge 

 about two hundred of them were seen, and the Chief felt that in 



