52 



WILD SPAIN. 



commanded every visible approach, and we advanced in 

 Indian file to reconnoitre, with the conviction that any 

 operation must be in the nature of a forlorn hope. But 

 a skill and rapid perception of the least advantage, worthy 

 of a field-marshal, were at work, directed against the hap- 

 less eight. Eiding circuitously around the game, we had 

 approached as near as prudence allowed — some 300 yards, 

 when an almost imperceptible depression served for a 

 few moments to screen us from their view. Hardly had 

 the last head sunk below the sky-line than one of the two 

 guns rolled out of the saddle, passing the reins to his com- 

 panion, who, in ten more yards, had reappeared to the 

 already suspicious bustards. By the invaluable aid of a 

 tiny furrow, worn by the winter's rains, but barely a foot in 

 depth, No. 1 managed to worm a serpentine progression to 

 the shoulder of the hill, — a point some 100 yards up the 

 gentle slope, and barely twice that distance from the game, — 

 while No. 2, slowly encircling the birds at 200 yards radius, 

 gradually contracting and in full view, gained the reverse 

 of the hill. Twice the big sentry had given the warning to 

 "be ready"; as often the hunter widened his course till 

 suspicion was allayed. Critical moments these, when success 

 or failure depend upon a thread : upon instant diagnosis 

 of what is passing in one's opponent's mind, divining, so ; 

 to speak, his intentions before he has actually perfected^ 

 them, or even decided himself. 



So perfect in this encounter was the strategy — so com- 

 plete the ascendency of mind over instinct — and the keenest 

 instinct of all, that of self-preservation — that in due time 

 the intervening space had been diminished, yard by yard, 

 almost to the fatal range. Presently the still hesitating 

 birds are little more than one hundred yards away — the 

 great sentinel some five yards nearer. Now : mark well every 

 movement of his — there is the signal at last : his stately 

 head is lowered — slowly lowered some six inches while he 

 still watches intently. Now he takes a rapid step forward 

 —he is going. But hardly have the huge wings unfolded 

 than the rider, has sprung to his feet, and a couple of 

 charges of " treble A " crash together into that broad back 



