276 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
struck the top of the bank which concealed the body 
of the stag, but exposed the neck and head above. 
In another instant the stag was flying through the 
pass, and thoroughly in view, as he coursed towards 
the lower country, where he would be free from his 
pursuers. The left-hand barrel nailed him. The 
bullet struck fairly in the centre of the shoulder, 
he turned a complete somersault, and was stretched 
dead in his fullest speed. 
This was uncommonly pretty. It was the most 
dramatic incident I have ever witnessed in a long 
career of sporting experiences. I had shot three 
splendid stags, and wounded a fourth, all within a 
quarter of an hour. This last stag was an unexpected 
mystery ; we knew nothing about it, neither had we 
the least idea who the people were who had evidently 
been firing at it, when the bullets whistled above 
our heads. In this uninhabited wilderness there 
was as much chance of meeting a human being as a 
gorilla or an ourang-outang. Who were those 
people who had been seen on horseback on the sky¬ 
line ? 
The best way of discovering them was to use 
the glasses, therefore we ascended the saddle-back 
pass, through which the stag had rushed, and then 
tried the binoculars. 
We now distinctly counted five white men 
mounted upon horses; while several other white 
and men a large number of pack animals were 
carefully descending the steep incline to follow 
those who had already reached the lower ground ; 
