26o 
TOM SAVERS, 
did not follow him, I looked aton£f the track where the 
first stag had fallen for broken antlers, fmdin^*; none 1 
hoped they were all right, but when I got down to him 1 
found that one was snapped off at the centre of the beam, 
and the other had half the upper tine gone, I walked 
back and picked up the broken antlers and part of the 
broken tine, so was able to mend them. The head is not 
equal to many of my Nielgherry stags, but still it is a 
handsome trophy; he had fallen down from sixty to eighty 
feet and was a good deal knocked about and bones broken. 
My first shot had hit him near the hip joint and the other 
^near the point of the shoulder. 
There was a stag which frequented the sholas near Peer- 
mund which, from his fighting propensities, I named Tom 
Sayers ; he had very massive antlers and 1 was keen to have 
them. After killing the leopard, the description of which 
will be found in the chapter on tigers, I was wending my 
way to the bungalow, quite satisfied with my morning's sport, 
when on the crest of the opposite hill appeared a fine stag, 
I knew him at once as he descended the hill towards me ; 
he Wiis making for the big wood from which I had just 
emerged, so skirting along the edge under cover of the 
rhododendron trees, I made haste to meet him, I had 
got as far as I could without showing myself, and was 
doubting in my own mind whether he had not given me 
the slip, when suddenly I saw his massive antlers appearing 
beyond some detached rhododendrons ; on he came walking 
towards me quite unaware of danger, and when about ninety 
yards distant, I took him, and gave him both barrels. He 
turned and dashed away into a patch of high fern. 1 knew 
he had got both shots^ and on running through the fern 
