. "After a while he will go to sleep," he said,
"then we can shoot him."

I must confess that I had but little hope. The ram seemed too
splendid and much, much too far away. But I could feast my eyes on
his magnificent head and almost count the rings on his curling
horns.

A flock of red-legged partridges sailed across from the opposite
ridge, uttering their rapid-fire call and alighted almost at our
feet. Then each one seemed to melt into the mountain side, vanishing
like magic among the grass and stones. I wondered mildly why they
had concealed themselves so suddenly, but a moment later there
sounded a subdued whir, like the motor of an aeroplane far up in the
sky. Three shadows drifted over, and I saw three huge black eagles
swinging in ever lowering circles about our heads. I knew then that
the partridges had sought the protection of our presence from their
mortal enemies, the eagles.

When I looked at the sheep again he was lying down squarely in the
trail, lazily raising his head now and then to gaze about. The
hunter inspected the ram through my glasses and prepared to go. We
rolled slowly over the ridge and then hurried around to the
projecting spur at the end of which the ram was lying.

The going was very bad indeed. Pieces of crumbled granite were
continually slipping under foot, and at times we had to cling like
flies to a wall of rock with a sheer drop of hundreds of feet below
us. Twice the Mongol cautiously looked over the ridge, but each time
shook his head and worked his way a little farther. At last he
motioned me to slide up beside him. Pushing my rifle over the rock
before me, I raised myself a few inches and saw the massive head and
neck of the ram two hundred yards away. His body was behind a rocky
shoulder, but he was looking squarely at us and in a second would be
off.

I aimed carefully just under his chin, and at the roar of the
high-power shell, the ram leaped backward. "You hit him," said the
Mongol, but I felt he must be wrong; if the bullet had found the
neck he would have dropped like lead.

Never in all my years of hunting have I had a feeling of such
intense surprise and self-disgust. I had been certain of the shot
and it was impossible to believe that I had missed. A lump rose in
my throat and I sat with my head resting on my hands in the
uttermost depths of dejection.

And then the impossible happened! Why it happened, I shall never
know. A kind Providence must have directed