ed as many times. Just when you
think all is ready and that there can be no possible reason for delaying
longer, the whole crowd will disappear suddenly and you discover that they
have gone for "chow." Then you know that the end is really in sight, for
chow usually is the last thing.

We waited nearly two hours on this particular morning before we started on
the long climb to the top of the mountain. The sun was simply blazing, and
in fifteen minutes we were soaked with perspiration. When we were half way
up the dogs disappeared in a small ravine overgrown with bamboo and sword
grass and suddenly broke into a chorus of yelps. They had found a fresh
trail and were driving our way.

Harry ran to a narrow opening in the jungle, shouting to us to watch
another higher up. We were hardly in position when his rifle banged,
followed by such a bedlam of yells and barks that we thought he must have
killed nothing less than one of the hunters. Before we reached them Harry
appeared, smiling all over, and dragging a muntjac (_Muntiacus_) by the
fore legs. He had just made a beautiful shot, for the clearing he had been
watching was not more than ten feet wide and the muntjac flashed across it
at full speed. Caldwell fired while it was in mid-air and his bullet caught
the animal at the base of the neck, rolling it over stone dead.

This beautiful little deer in Fukien is hardly larger than a fox. Its
antlers are only two or three inches in length and rise from an elongated
skin-covered pedicel instead of from the base of the skull as in all other
members of the deer family. On each side of the upper jaw is a slender
tusk, about two inches long, which projects well beyond the lips and makes
a rather formidable weapon.

We hoped that this muntjac was going to prove a "good joss," but instead a
disappointing day was in store for us. When we had worked our way to the
very summit of the mountain under a merciless sun and over a trail which
led through a smothering bamboo jungle, we saw dozens of fresh serow
tracks. The animals were there without a doubt and we were on the _qui
vive_ with excitement.

We selected positions and the men made a long circuit to drive toward us as
Caldwell had directed. After half an hour had passed we heard them yelling
as they closed in, but what was our disgust to see them solemnly parading
in single file up the bottom of the valley on an open trail and carefully
avoiding all thickets where a serow could