12G AMID THE HIGH HILLS 
of the hinds were nowhere to be seen. We moved 
a little farther on where we could get a view of 
other ground, when suddenly there was a tre- 
mendous clatter of loose stones, and we saw the 
stag and some twenty hinds about 120 yards 
from us. The deer stopped for a few seconds, 
the stag looking straight at us, and then away they 
went. We ran quickly to the point where they 
had disappeared, and saw the hinds we had last 
seen with the stag going in the direction which 
the other hinds had previously taken, but the stag 
was not with them. " He cannot go far," said 
the stalker. The ground was very much broken 
up by large stones and boulders, and we both 
thought that the stag must be lying hidden not 
far from us. We were quite certain from the 
position we were in that we could not have failed 
to see him unless he had turned back below the 
hill and gone into the forest from which we had 
come. We noticed the hinds stopping every now 
and then and looking back, as they so often do 
when one of their number has been wounded and 
is behind them. By following the marks of blood 
on the stones we traced the course the stag had 
taken for about 200 yards, but after that we lost 
the tracks. We made the most careful search, and 
