hey had
neared the stag to within half the original distance, when the animal
again lifted up his head and appeared uneasy. Jacob stopped and
remained without motion. After a time the stag walked away, followed by
the does, to the opposite side of the clear spot on which they had been
feeding, and, to Edward's annoyance, the animal was now half a mile from
them. Jacob turned round and crawled into the wood, and when he knew
that they were concealed he rose on his feet and said:

"You see, Edward, that it requires patience to stalk a deer. What a
princely fellow! But he has probably been alarmed this morning, and is
very uneasy. Now we must go through the woods till we come to the lee
of him on the other side of the dell. You see he has led the does close
to the thicket, and we shall have a better chance when we get there, if
we are only quiet and cautious."

"What startled him, do you think?" said Edward.

"I think, when you were crawling through the fern after me, you broke a
piece of rotten stick that was under you, did you not?"

"Yes, but that made but little noise."

"Quite enough to startle a red deer, Edward, as you will find out before
you have been long a forester. These checks will happen, and have
happened to me a hundred times, and then all the work is to be done over
again. Now then to make the circuit--we had better not say a word. If
we get safe now to the other side we are sure of him."

They proceeded at a quick walk through the forest, and in half an hour
had gained the side where the deer were feeding. When about three
hundred yards from the game, Jacob again sank down on his hands and
knees, crawling from bush to bush, stopping whenever the stag raised his
head, and advancing again when it resumed feeding; at last they came to
the fern at the side of the wood, and crawled through it as before, but
still more cautiously as they approached the stag. In this manner they
arrived at last to within eighty yards of the animal, and then Jacob
advanced his gun ready to put it to his shoulder, and as he cocked the
lock, raised himself to fire. The click occasioned by the cocking of
the lock roused up the stag instantly, and he turned his head in the
direction from whence the noise proceeded; as he did so Jacob fired,
aiming behind the animal's shoulder: the stag made a bound, came down
again, dropped on his knees, attempted to run, and fell dead, while the
does fled away with the rapidity of