strange and unknown
to him, that he was naturally nervous. Even the keepers had declared
that the shooting of the first stag was everything; that thereafter he
would have confidence; that he would take the whole matter as coolly as
themselves. And yet, when they now began to proceed more warily (old
Maggie having been hobbled some way back) and when every corrie and
slope and plateau had to be searched with the glass, he found himself
growing not a little anxious at the thought of drawing the trigger;
insomuch, indeed, that those sombre fancies of the imagination went out
of his head altogether and gave place to the apprehension that on such a
day it would be difficult to make a good shot. Their initial difficulty,
however, was to find any trace of the "beasts." The wild weather had
most likely driven them away from their usual haunts into some place of
shelter, the smaller companies joining the main herd; at all events, up
to lunch-time the stalkers had seen nothing. It was during this brief
rest--in a deep peat-hag, down which trickled a little stream of
rain-water--that Lionel discovered two things: first, that he was wet to
the skin, and, second, that the wind in these altitudes was of an Arctic
keenness. So long as he had been kept going, he had not paid much
attention; but now this bitter blast seemed to pierce him to the very
marrow; and he began to think that these were very pleasant conditions
for a professional singer to be in--for a professional singer whose very
existence depended on his voice.

"Here goes for congestion of the lungs," he philosophically observed to
himself, as he shiveringly munched his wet sandwiches.

Presently Roderick came along the peat-hag.

"Would you like to wait here, sir, for a while?" said he, in his
accustomed undertone. "I'm thinking Alec and me will go aweh up to the
top of Meall-Breac and hef a look round there; and if we are seeing
nothing, we will come back this weh and go down the Corrie-nam-Miseag--"

"And I am to wait here for you?" Lionel exclaimed. "Not if I know it! By
the time you come back, Roderick, you would find me a frozen corpse.
I've got to keep moving somehow, and I may as well go on with you. I
suppose I cannot have a cigarette before setting out?"

"Aw, naw, sir!" Roderick pleaded. "In this weather, you cannot say where
the deer may be--you may happen on them at any moment--and there will be
plenty of time for you to smok on the weh hom."

"Very well,