176 AMID THE HIGH HILLS 
Macdoiigall, " if you will have it, we'll try, but I 
don't think it will be any good ; we shall have to 
crawl as hard and fast as ever we can up the hill, 
quite flat the whole way." Away w^e went as 
hard as we could, and it took me all my time to 
keep up behind Macdougall, who propelled him- 
self along at a prodigious rate. Arrived behind 
the knobby, we very carefully raised our heads, 
and found that Macdougall's prophecy had for- 
tunately proved only partly correct. The three 
stags behind the big stag and his fag, the little 
stag, had seen us and had bolted, but instead of 
going forward, as Macdougall had expected, they 
had turned tail and made off in the other direction, 
with the result that they had only put off the 
deer behind them and none of the deer in front 
of them. Macdougall hurriedly whispered, pull- 
ing the rifle out of the cover : " The big stag is 
still there, sir, but he and the wee staggie are 
getting varra suspeecious, and you'll have to 
take him varra quick. He'll be about 220 yards." 
" Well," I said, " I must get my breath ; I'm 
absolutely blown," the fact being that at the 
moment I felt absolutely done to the world and 
was quite incapable of shooting straight. The 
big stag had slightly moved and was now standing 
