68 CHAPTER X. 



I got my field glasses on the stag as quickly as possible and it 

 seemed to me that not only could I detect a strangeness in his gait 

 as he ran on with the others, but the right foreleg, the one which 

 had been most distant from me when I fired, had the appearance of 

 being broken. 



I was greatly disturbed, and I blamed myself severely. I should 

 never have taken such a shot. The distance was over-great, the time 

 short, and the stag had been moving rapidly. I had been having 

 such magnificent luck though, five stags in five shots, on two oc- 

 casions, a double on stags, that I suppose I had grown over con- 

 fident. Rather impressed, as one sometimes becomes, you know, 

 with the feeling that it is impossible to miss. 



From my experience with deer in other places I reasoned that this 

 fellow, if he had a broken leg, would go on for some considerable 

 distance, then he would lie dov/n. If I could locate the spot where he 

 stopped for his rest it might be possible to pick him up again, be- 

 cause if he were not disturbed quickly he would lie almost as close 

 as a quail, and I could have a chance for a shot which would put 

 him out of his misery. 



I was, of course, distressed, because of wounding instead of killing 

 the animal, but there was no use feeling too badly over it ; it was 

 done and could not be helped. The next thing was to get that stag 

 if there was any way to do it. 



We climbed quickly to a high point and saw the line of deer come 

 out on a ridge further on, from which they disappeared into a great 

 corrie with lips a mile apart and which had a depth of near to a 

 thousand feet. I felt sure the deer would be some time in getting 

 out of that place, so we sat down here and lunched. Then we went 

 on to further high ground which permitted us to command the corrie 

 where the deer had disappeared and the exit from it. 



Just as we came in sight of the way out we discovered, in a straight 

 line perhaps a mile and a half distant, the herd of deer moving up 

 the steep hillside across the short level space and disappearing, in turn, 

 on the far side. I had John and the gillie put their telescopes on 

 the herd and I watched them quite closely with my fine, clear little 

 Warner and Swasey prism binocular. 



