t the other stag had caught
sight of the rifle-smoke and was off at the top of his speed, he rose
from his place of concealment and jumped on to the rock that had been
hiding him.

"Ay, ay, sir, he'll no go far," he cried to Lionel, who was scrambling
up to the same place. "There, he's down again on his knees. Come aweh,
sir? we'll go after him. Give me the rifle."

Lionel had just time to get a glimpse of the wounded stag, which was
stumbling pitifully along--far behind its now disappearing
companion--when he had to descend from the rock in order to follow
Roderick. All three ran quickly down the hill and rounded into the
hollow where they had last seen the stag, following up his track, and
looking out everywhere for his prostrate body. But the farther they
went, the more amazed became Roderick and the gillie; there was no sign
of the beast that both of them declared could not have run a couple of
hundred yards. The track of him disappeared in the bed of a burn and
could not be recovered, search as they would; so they proceeded to
explore every adjacent hollow and peat-bag, in the certainty that within
a very few minutes they must find the lost quarry. The few minutes
lengthened out and out; half-hours went by; and yet there was no sign.
They went away down the burn; they went away up the burn; they made
wider casts, and narrowed in, like so many retrievers; and all to no
purpose. And meanwhile darkness and the night were coming on.

"He's lying dead somewhere, as sure as anything can be," Roderick said,
looking entirely puzzled and crestfallen; "and we'll hef to bring up a
terrier in the morning and search for him. I never sah the like o' that
in my life. When he fell where he stood I made sure he was feenished;
then he was up again and ran a little weh, and again he went down on his
knees--"

"It was then I saw him," Lionel exclaimed, "and I expected him to drop
the next moment. Why, he _must_ be about here, Roderick, he couldn't
vanish into the air--he wasn't a ghost--for I heard the thud of the
bullet when it struck him--"

"Ay, and me too," Roderick said, "but we will do no good now, for it is
getting so dark; and you hef to cross the two fords, sir--"

"The fords!" said Lionel. "By Jove! I forgot them. I say, we must hurry
on. I suppose you are sure to find him in the morning?"

"We will bring up a terrier whatever," Roderick said, doubtfully; for he
seemed to have been entirely disconcerted by the disapp