44 DEER-STALKING. 



been waiting near his march for nearly an hour at a 

 little over one hundred yards from some deer that were 

 lying down, and seemingly thoroughly bent on resting a 

 considerable time longer. To pass the time he was 

 trying to make a rough sketch on an old envelope of the 

 shooting lodge in the distance, and trusting the stalker 

 to watch the deer and tell him of any movement on their 

 part. Suddenly, without a moment's warning, there is 

 whispered " Quick, sir, they are all off ! " and snatching 

 up the rifle, there was nothing to be seen but some re- 

 treating heads, and taking a hasty sight between a pair 

 of good horns, the trigger was pressed and the deer 

 clean missed. It certainly was not a miss to " greet " 

 over, and no more was said about it, though we specu- 

 lated a good deal as to what put them so suddenly 

 away. 



A day or two afterwards one of our pony men brought 

 my stalker a message from Naboth's stalker, to say " he'd 

 best tell his master to get some straight powder," and 

 on further inquiry we found our neighbours had been 

 about a mile off watching our performance, and hoping 

 we should send the deer to them. This, however, had 

 not happened, and so, comforting ourselves with this 

 knowledge, we tried to feel as little nettled as possible 

 at the remark. My stalker, however, could not swallow 

 the chaff at all ; it was always on his mind, and for days 

 after, whenever he went near the march, his glass was 

 incessantly directed across it, in the hopes of getting his 

 revenge. About a week later, happening to be on the 

 same ground again, but quite early in the morning, we 

 turned our glasses on the path by which our neighbours 



