64 CHAPTER IX. 



seen deer run in that fashion on other days. When a stag seems to 

 unloose all his energy with every leap you are not to expect him tc 

 stop within shooting distance. His intentions are evident in such a 

 case. He means to get out of harm's way before he subsides. 



So I knew this chap was as good as gone unless I fired while he 

 ran. In the quick way in which one thinks under such circumstances 

 I realized that to fire and hit him in the after part of the body and 

 thus ruin a venison ham would be an unutterably ignominious act. 

 I had to break his back or his neck as he traveled upward and away 

 from me. Even as I thought and followed him with the rifle the 

 sights seemed to show me that I had the right spot and I pulled. 

 The bullet sped as true as a die, and if I fired ten thousand shots 

 under similar circumstances I could never put one closer to the spot 

 I had wished this one to go. 



At the sound of the shot the stag collapsed, waved his forefeet 

 feebly in the air for a moment and then rolled and slid down the hill. 

 He was dead when, racing across the broken ground, I got to him. 

 The bullet had entered squarely in the middle of his back at the point 

 where his suspenders would have crossed had the creature been a 

 man and fully clothed. 



It was glorious good fortune. A double on stags is not so easy under 

 any circumstances. 



While the necessary attentions were being shown the stags by Donald 

 and the gillie who accompanied us, I made my way down the hill and 

 along the trail to where ponies were waiting. These I sent up with 

 another gillie in charge of them to bring down the game, while I 

 trudged in to the Lodge. It was not more than half-past three o'clock. 



When I got in at five-thirty I was, though wet and bedraggled from 

 my stalking, not unduly tired, although I had covered only a little 

 less than thirty miles since morning. 



One incident of the double shot of the day is too good to be 

 omitted. As I have said, Donald took the keenest interest in the 

 sport; ever ready to excuse a bad shot, he was just as willing to praise 

 a more lucky one. When I fired the first time from the hillock and 

 the stag fell at the shot, he said, with satisfaction in his tones, "You 

 got 'un, you got 'un ! A good shot !" and that was all. 



