When the Kirghiz first joined us I told the interpreter to explain to them the use of a field-glass. Then they all laughed at the idea of finding game with such things; now they were always wanting to borrow them.
For about half an hour we lay spying both with binoculars and telescope, and Dewanna had just risen to his feet saying that there was nothing, when I saw by the younger Kirghiz’s manner that he had seen something. I was only just in time to drag Dewanna down, when over a brow below us came a fine Poli, followed by two others, all beasts with good heads. After a few minutes, the three lay close down together near the bottom of a small ravine, and we had a good look at them through a telescope. They were magnificent fellows, possibly out of the big lot which we had seen in the morning.
Of course the Kirghiz wanted to ‘drive’ the rams, and of course I promptly vetoed the proposition. Why is it, I wonder, that all over the world the natives are so desperately keen about driving? I could easily account for it if the general knowledge of stalking were as limited as that of the Kirghiz, who spoilt several of my earlier stalks by showing themselves behind me whilst I was ‘worming’ my way up to game, and who seemed quite ignorant of the fatal results of showing oneself upon a skyline. But it is not only the Kirghiz, for in the Caucasus two men whom I employed, perfect masters of the stalker’s art—quite as good as the best of the Kashmir Shikaris (who I consider are at the top of the tree)—were always tempting me to ‘drive.’ I am glad to say that the only time I was weak enough to yield to their solicitations the drive ended in a fiasco. Taking the younger Kirghiz with me to carry the rifle, and leaving Dewanna to watch and to signal to us the direction of any movement on the part of the rams, I took the precaution to pick up a good supply of small stones to pelt my man with whenever I found him going too fast ahead of me. The fellow had most wonderfully quick sight, so I used to send him on in front, and on previous occasions his excitement had so far carried him away that I had to be perpetually running after him to stop him; and as at that altitude (upwards of 16,000 ft. above sea level) I found that I could not shoot unless I had been walking with the greatest circumspection, it was necessary to recall him now and again by this simple and easy system of telegraphy.
Keeping well out of sight along the ridge, we found a little watercourse down which we could descend without being seen, and having carefully searched every inch of ground to make sure that there was no other Poli in our path who might spoil our stalk, we crept down to within three hundred yards of where we had last seen our three rams. Here the Kirghiz took off his sandals, while I took the Henry double Express out of its cover, made sure that all was ready, and then handed it back to him, as every extra pound to carry adds to the difficulty of keeping your breath.
I was shod in tennis shoes, with red rubber soles three-quarters of an inch thick, to my mind the very perfection of foot-gear for stalking, as they are perfectly noiseless, will outwear two ordinary leather soles among the rocks, and are only dangerous on snow or ice.
Softly as mice we crept up the slope of a little ridge on the further side of which we had last seen the Poli. Our man on the hill made no sign, so that all was right so far. A little short of the top, I took the rifle and crept up the last few yards alone. Peeping over the top, I could just see the tip of a horn behind a rock about one hundred yards below. Taking off my cap to place my rifle upon it, for if fired resting on a rock without a pad the jar would send the bullet wide, I cocked the weapon and lay there waiting.
The wind was right and the moment they moved they were at my mercy. Whilst waiting I sent the Kirghiz about ten yards to my right to see if he could make out in which position the big one was lying, as from my point of view they were half hidden, and it was difficult to say for certain which was the big head.
Suddenly up they jumped and stood for one moment looking up the hill. The big one was end on, facing me, but I had had a good rest, my heart had ceased to beat wildly and my hand was steady, so squeezing the trigger gradually and firmly, the report of the rifle was followed by the loud smack which tells an old hand all he wants to know. Not wasting a look on the big one, I shifted the sights on to one of the others and fired just as he bounded off. Another smack told that that bullet, too, had found its billet, but the beast made off with its companions. On dashing frantically down the hill and up the other side of a small ravine, I saw one Poli standing and looking about him two hundred and fifty yards off. Lying down I tried to take a careful aim, but I found the rifle was pointing ten feet over his back one second and the next twenty feet below him. This was no good, so I lay quiet in the hope that he might be so unsophisticated as to stay there until my poor panting frame recovered its steadiness; but alas! in a few seconds he was off.