220 Unexplored Spain 
the west, always rising till we found ourselves on the summit of 
another ridge looking down into a mighty gorge and upon the 
mysterious rock-cradled Cinco Lagunas de Grédos. The plains 
of Castile lay beneath us like a map, towns and villages dis- 
tinguishable through the glass though not without. Bertram was 
placed in a “pass,” about 100 yards wide, piercing the topmost 
peaks, myself in a similar portilla rather lower down. An hour 
later Dionysio, who had climbed the crag above me, whence he 
could see into the abyss beneath, signalled as he hung over the 
edge of his eyrie that something was coming. Then he slid down 
to my side to tell me that three goats were moving slowly up the 
gorge. Dionysio returned to his ledge, and for half an hour I 
enjoyed that state of breathless suspense when one expects each 
moment to be face to face with a coveted trophy. The three 
goats, I perceived, must pass through this portilla on one side or 
the other of the rock behind which I lay expectant. At last 
there caught my ear the gentle patter of horned hoofs on rocks, 
but oh! it was succeeded by the bang of a gun. Dionysio 
had fired from his ledge twenty yards above me. The three ibex 
had come on to within ten yards of where I lay, looking, as it 
were, down a tunnel. ‘The wind had been right enough, but it 
appeared an erratic puff had elected to blow straight from us to 
them. They caught it, and in a flash disappeared down the 
ravine, Dionysio, as he hung from the ledge, giving them a 
parting shot. That was friend Dionysio’s version of the event. 
What actually occurred, all who are experienced in this wild- 
hunting will divine without our telling. I ran from my post 
along the lip of the abyss—luckily there was a bit of fairly good 
going—hoping to get a chance as the game turned upwards again ; 
for at once, on hearing a shot, the beaters far below joined in a 
chorus of wild yells to push them upwards. ‘This they succeeded 
in doing, but the goats passed beyond my range. I now saw 
there were four in all—three females and a handsome ram. 
Dionysio made a further effort to turn them, which so far 
succeeded that the ram separated and bounded up the rocks 
towards the higher pass, where he ran the gauntlet of Bertram 
within thirty yards. Now the whole stress and burden of a 
laborious expedition fell upon the youngest shoulders, for B. 
was barely out of his teens, and more skilled with shot-gun 
than with ball. The responsibility proved almost too great 
