"A GRAN' SHOT!" 63 



of the one previously chosen. Here I prepared myself a second time 

 for a shot, and here also I found my stag still concealed. In no time 

 at all, or so it seemed to me, I was as cold as ever. 



Donald had been watching me anxiously, and now when I felt I 

 could endure the situation no longer, he questioned in subdued tones, 

 "D'ye see yon staug at the right end of the ravine, nigh to the three- 

 black rocks?" I nodded yes. "The General could shoot him," my 

 stalker continued, "and then the gran' gray 'un might cam' out, an 

 gi' us a shot." 



I made no comment. I simply said, "Shall I shoot this stag, Donald?" 

 "Yes, yes, shoot un." 



The deer in question was a scant 200 yards to my right front; more- 

 over, the rain which was slanting down hit upon the back and side 

 of my head, so that it did not, as so often it had under similar 

 circumstances, blur my shooting glasses beyond any power of eye to 

 pierce. 



I swung the muzzle of my rifle cautiously in the direction of the 

 unconscious stag until I got my view of him where he was outlined, 

 a grayish brown smudge against a background of his own color. I 

 quickly moved the rifle till sure I had it firmly grasped and confident 

 that the sights were properly aligned with the front sight snugly in 

 the bottom of that dangerous deep backsight, and then, with a point 

 of aim which seemed to me the center of the body just back of his 

 heart, I touched the trigger. 



At that very instant, so quickly that it seemed the bullet could 

 hardly have sped so soon upon its deadly way, the stag collapsed as 

 if smitten by lightning's bolt. It needed no expert eye to see that 

 here was no wounded creature, but one stone dead. At the shot all 

 the deer were in motion ; in a flash the big gray fellow I had first 

 sought and who had been the object of the stalk came into view on 

 the far side of the little hill racing up the higher hill beyond it at 

 full speed, taking the ascent in great leaps. 



It needed but a touch to eject the cartridge case and drive a new 

 shell home and by a little movement to put the sights in the vicinity 

 of the bounding gray fellow. 



I knew what Donald expected; that I should wait until the stag 

 stopped, but he was 250 yards away when he appeared and I had 



