t
two hours in cautious approach, till they saw that the sheep took alarm
and rushed up to the top of the slope, disappeared for a moment, and
then came back, to stand staring down at their advancing enemies.

"It's all right," exclaimed Joses, "we can get the lot if we like, for
they can't get away. Yonder's a regular dip down where they can't jump.
Keep your rifles ready, my boys, and we'll shoot two. That'll be
enough."

As they spread out and slowly advanced, the sheep ran back out of sight,
but came back again, proving Joses' words, that there was a precipice
beyond them and their enemies in front.

Four times over, as the hunting party advanced, did the sheep perform
this evolution, but the last time they did not come back into sight.

"They're away hiding down among the bushes," said Joses. "Be ready.
Now then close in. You keep in the middle here, Master Bart, and have
the first shot. Pick a good fat one."

"Yes," panted Bart, who was out of breath with the climbing, and to rest
him Joses called a halt, keeping a sharp look-out the while to left and
right, so that the sheep might not elude them.

At the end of a few minutes they toiled up the slope once more, Joses
uttering a few words of warning to his young companion.

"Don't rush when you get to the top, for it slopes down there with a big
wall going right down beyond, and you mightn't be able to stop yourself.
Keep cool, we shall see them together directly."

But they did not see the sheep cowering together as they expected, for
though the top of the mountain was just as Joses had described, sloping
down after they had passed the summit and then going down abruptly in an
awful precipice, no sheep were to be seen, and after making sure that
none were hidden, the men passed on cautiously to the edge, Bart being a
little way behind, forcing his way through some thick bushes.

Just then a cry from Joses made him hurry to the edge, but he was too
late to see what three of them witnessed, and that was the leap of a
magnificent ram, which had been standing upon a ledge ten feet below
them, and which, as soon as it heard the bushes above its head parted,
made a tremendous spring as if into space, but landed on another ledge,
fifty feet below, to take off once more for another leap right out of
sight.

"We must go back and round into the valley," said Juan. "We shall find
them all with their necks broken."

"You'll be clever if you do," said Joses,