eight stags that had come along
from quite a different direction. They paused at the crest of the slope,
looking all about them.

"Was ever anything so mischievous?" Roderick exclaimed, in smothered
vexation. "If they come over this way they will get our wind; and then
it is good-bye to all of them. And we cannot get away neither--well,
well, was there ever the like now? There is only the one chance--mebbe
they will go along to the others, and keep with them till they begin
feeding in the afternoon. Indeed, now, it is a terrible peety if we are
to miss such a chance--and not a hind anywhere to be on the watch!"

Happily, however, Roderick's immediate fears were soon dispelled. The
new-comers slowly descended the slope; then they bore up the valley
again; and after walking about awhile, they followed the example of the
rest of the herd and lay down on the heather.

"Ay, ay, that is better now," Roderick said, with much satisfaction.
"That is ferry well now. And since there is nothing to be done till the
whole of them get up to feed in the afternoon, we will chist creep aweh
into a peat-hag and wait there, and you can have your lunch, sir."

So there was another crawling performance down from this exposed height;
and eventually the small party managed to hide themselves in a black and
moist peat-hag, where their extremely frugal repast was produced.

"But look here, Roderick," Lionel said, "it's only twelve o'clock now;
do you mean to say we have to stop in this wet hole till two or three in
the afternoon?"

"Ay, chist that," the keeper said, coolly. "They will begin to feed
about three; and until they go over the ridge, it is no use at all
trying to get near them."

"And what are we to do all the time?"

"Chist wait," Roderick said, with much simplicity; and then he and the
gillie withdrew a little way down the peat-hag, so that they might have
their luncheon and a cautious whispering in Gaelic by themselves.

It was tantalizing in the last degree. The breathless consciousness that
the deer were close by made him all the more impatient for the
half-dreaded opportunity of having a shot at one of them. He wished it
was well over. If he were going to miss, he wanted to have his agony of
mortification encountered and done with, instead of enduring this
maddening delay. The peat-hag became a prison; and a very uncomfortable
prison, too. His sandwiches were soon disposed of; thereafter--what? He
dared not smoke; he