ly hope there are," said Joses; "for if we
could get one or two o' them in good condition, they're the best eating
of anything as goes on four legs."

"But not our sort of sheep?"

"No, of course not. Mountain sheep, my lad, with great horns twisted
round so long and thick you get wondering how the sheep can carry 'em,
and--there, look!"

He caught Bart by the shoulder, and pointed to a tremendous slope, a
quarter of a mile away, where, in the clear pure air, the lad could see
a flock of about twenty sheep evidently watching them.

"They're the shyest, artfullest things as ever was," whispered Joses.
"Down softly, and let's back away; we must circumvent them, and get
behind 'em for a shot."

"Too late," said Bart; and he was right, for suddenly the whole herd
went off at a tremendous pace along a slope that seemed to be quite a
precipice, and the next moment they were gone.

"That's up for to-day," said Joses, shouldering his rifle. "We may go
back and try and pick up a bird or two. To-morrow we'll come strong,
and p'r'aps get a shot at the sheep, as we know they are here."

They were fortunate enough to shoot a few grouse on their way back, and
next morning at daybreak, Bart and the four men started after the sheep,
the Doctor preferring to stay by the waggon and examine some of the
rocks.

As the party climbed upwards towards the slope where the sheep had been
seen on the previous day, Joses was full of stories about the shy nature
of these animals.

"They'll lead you right away into the wildest places," he said, "and
then, when you think you've got them, they go over some steep cut, and
you never see 'em again. Some people say they jump head first down on
to the rocks, and lets themselves fall on their horns, which is made big
on purpose, and then bounces up again, but I don't believe it, for if
they did, they'd break their necks. All the same, though, they do jump
down some wonderful steep places and run up others that look like walls.
Here, what's Sam making signals for! Go softly."

They crept up to their companion, and found that he had sighted a flock
of eleven sheep on a slope quite a couple of miles away, and but for the
assurance of Joses that it was all right, and that they were sheep, Bart
would have said it was a patch of a light colour on the mountain.

As they approached cautiously, however, trying to stalk the timid
creatures, Bart found that his men were right, and they spent the nex