he herd.

"Now, Jerry, you mark the fellow to the left; I'll take the one to the
right," said I, almost trembling in my eagerness. "Don't let us fire
till we get up to the rock; then rest a moment, and it will be hard if
we don't hit one of them. If we miss, we'll see what Surley can do for
us." Jerry nodded his agreement to this proposal, and crouching down,
we crept on till we reached the rock. For an instant we waited to
recover breath, then we lifted up our rifles and rested them on a ledge
of the rock. It would be impossible to have got a better aim. Crack--
crack--we both fired. Off scampered the herd up the mountain.

"We've missed! we've missed!" we cried. "Oh, bothera--No, no! there's
one fellow staggering. The one I fired at," I exclaimed. "Hurrah!"

"There's another! See, see!--he's over--no! he's up again, and away
with the rest," sung out Jerry. "Let Surley after him, Harry. He'll
bring him down. Hurrah, hurrah, what luck!"

With such like exclamations we darted from behind our cover, and ran as
fast as our legs could carry us up to the guanaco I had hit; while
Surley, hounded on by us, went off in hot chase after the animal Jerry
had wounded. We were soon up to the guanaco I had hit. Poor beast! he
staggered on, and then over he went on his side. He looked up at us
with his mild eyes, as much as to say, "Oh, you cruel white men, who
come from far-off across the seas, you have well-nigh destroyed the
original people of the country, and now you would wage war against us,
its harmless four-footed inhabitants." He tried to spit at us, but his
strength failed him, and in an instant more he was dead. As soon as we
saw this, off we went after Surley. He had singled a guanaco out of the
herd, and marks of blood on the grass showed that it had been wounded.
Old Surley was among them. Then one beast was seen to drop astern.
Slower and slower he went, kicking out all the time at the dog, who ran
leaping up to try and catch hold of his neck. He got a kick, which sent
him rolling over, but he was up again.

"Hurrah!" cried Jerry. "He has him now, though. Remember, Harry,
that's the beast I shot."

On we ran and clambered to get up with Old Surley and the guanaco, which
was still struggling to get away. He made several desperate springs
forward, but he struck out with his heels and spat in vain, for the
stanch dog was not to be shaken off. He was rapidly getting weaker--he
struggled less