300 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



of the hinds ; they had Iain down in the long heather, near the 

 spot they had been feeding on. But where were the remainder 

 of the herd ? I looked for two or three minutes in vain, keeping 

 my head perfectly motionless. Presently, however, the rest of 

 the deer appeared from amongst some broken ground, a hundred 

 yards higher up the hill than the others. Having looked 

 anxiously round them, they all dropped quietly down to rest, 

 with the exception of one lanky -looking hind, who stood 

 motionless on a small hillock, with her eyes and ears turned 

 with great attention in the direction of Donald's place of 

 ambuscade : she evidently had some kind of suspicion of danger 

 from that quarter, though she had not yet quite made up her 

 mind as to the reality of it. I lowered myself as gradually as 

 possible, and looked back at Malcolm. He was kneeling on 

 one knee with a dog held in each hand ; the dogs themselves 

 were a perfect picture, as they stood, with the most intense 

 expression of anxiety, watching my movements, and snuffing 

 the air in the direction in which I had been looking ; the wind 

 was too light, however, for them as yet to scent the deer. As 

 they stood motionless, and scarcely drawing their breath, I 

 could plainly see their hearts beating with anxiety and eager- 

 ness ; I explained the position of the deer to Malcolm, and we 

 immediately agreed that no time was to be lost, lest they should 

 take alarm at Donald, whose whereabouts the hind seemed 

 strongly to suspect. 



We had a difficult task in advancing the next fifty yards 

 with the dogs. The sensible animals, however, crouched when 

 we did, and were wonderfully little in the way, considering the 

 nature of the ground which we had to pass. The old hind's 

 ears were visible, but no more of her, as we crept along ; she 

 appeared to be still intently watching in the same direction as 

 before. Having crawled over a small height, we got into a 

 hollow place, and then proceeded to put the dogs' collars and 

 straps in a state to enable us to slip them at a moment's warning. 

 Both Bran and Oscar stood motionless, and almost seemed to 

 turn their necks in order to assist us in the operation. 



We then advanced with great care and silence, on our 

 hands and knees, for a couple of hundred yards along a cut in 

 the ground that took us away from the burn. Everything 

 had favoured us, the deer's attention had been taken off by 



