THE TRACK LOST AND FOUND. 263 
blood spots gradually g-etting less and less. The dogs soon 
arrived, the two Australian kangaroo do^s and Victor, a half 
hound half blood hound ; telling the men only to slip the 
dogs if the stag got up, I waited the result, and my hopes 
fell when Francis made signs that the track continued clown 
the hill towards the river. I stalked along the bank hoping 
the stag might be in the water, but saw no signs of him, only 
very fresh tracks of a tiger on the sand. 
Beyond the river there were two immense forests. We 
had entirely lost the track, but after hunting for a long time 
I found one spot of blood where the deer had entered the 
stream in the direction of one of the woods, and although I 
could not find any blood on the other bank to distinguish the 
track of the wounded deer from many others, I concluded 
he had made for the wood, but after hunting up nearly all of 
them without success, I went back again to the stream and 
after infinite trouble found a footstep with one unmistakeable 
drop of blood leading to a detached wood. My excitement 
was great as I stole round to command the upper part, but 
I was again to be disappointed. They found where the stag 
had Iain down and tracked him out of it in the direction 
of another very small w^ood. .1 posted myself at the top, 
listening for the slightest sound ; presently I heard a voice 
and a whistle and hastened down ; the boy with the two 
Australian dogs had started the stag which had doubled back, 
yet the idiot had never loosed the dogs. As soon as 1 got 
on the track I gave orders for the dogs to be let go, but 
I was in utter despair, for instead of their taking up the 
scent, they tore about in all directions in the wildest manner 
possible. I then sent one of the men to a hill top to look out 
while 1 endeavoured to take up the track ; presently the look 
