31 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE STALK THE SHOT. 



WE will now suppose it to be a nice fine day, and 

 everything ready for a start from the lodge. Be sure 

 that cartridges, coat, lunch, flask, pipe and 'bacca are 

 all with you, for in parts of the Highlands it is 

 thought to bring bad luck to turn back for anything 

 after having once made a start, and to do this will put 

 some stalkers quite out of heart for the day. What 

 nonsense ! is the natural exclamation, but all the same, 

 should the stalker be a believer in this superstition, on 

 no account balk him. He certainly will not confess 

 offhand to this feeling ; he may go a whole season 

 and never mention it, although plenty of articles be 

 forgotten and he sent back for them, but one day when 

 something extra bad has happened to interfere with the 

 sport, he will perhaps quietly confide in you. Therefore 

 once possessed of the knowledge of this fetish on his part, 

 if lunch or tobacco is found missing a short distance 

 from home, why go on boldly without it. The stalker will 

 not have forgotten either one or the other as far as he 

 is concerned, and will be proud to give you a bite, or a 

 pipe of his black cavendish. The mere fact of his being 

 a believer in this sort of bad luck is apt to make him 



