or damage, was the equivalent of a hard day’s work to a strong man.  At the end of it he lay gasping and sick, aching in every limb, almost blind with glare and over-exertion, weary to death—­and entirely happy.  Thank God he would be able to stand up in a moment and rest behind a big cactus.  Then he would have a spell of foot-work for a change, and, though crouching double, would not be doing any crawling until he had crossed the plateau and reached the bushes.

The upward climb was successfully accomplished with frequent halts for breath, behind boulders.  On the plateau all that was required was silence.  The ibex could not see him up there.  In his rubber-soled khaki-coloured shoes he could almost run, but it was a question whether a drink of cold water would not be worth more than all the ibexes in the world.

He tip-toed rapidly across the level hill-top, reached the belt of low bushes, dropped, and lay to recover breath before resuming the painful and laborious crawling part of his journey.  Was it possible to tap one’s tongue against one’s teeth and hear the noise of it as though it were made of wood?  It seemed so.  Was this giddiness and dimness of vision sunstroke?  What would he give to have that fly (that had followed him for hundreds of thousands of miles that morning) between his fingers?

Last lap!  There was the rock, and below it must be the quarry—­if it had not fled.  He must keep that rock between himself and his prey and he must get to it without a sound.  It would be easy enough without the rifle.  Could he stick it through his belt and along his back, or trail it behind him?  What nonsense!  He must be getting a touch of sun.  Would these stones leave marks of burns on his clothes?  Surely he could smell himself singeing.  Enough to explode the rifle ...  The big rock at last!  A rest and then a peep, with infinite precaution.  Dam held his breath and edged his face to the corner of the great boulder.  Moving imperceptibly, he peeped ... No ibex! ...  He was about to spring up with a hearty malediction on his luck when he perceived a peculiar projection on a large stone some distance down the hill.  It moved—­and Dam dropped back.  It must be the top of the curve of one of the horns of the ibex and the animal must be lying down....  What to do?  It might lie for hours and he himself might go to sleep.  It might get up and depart at any moment without coming into the line of fire—­without being seen indeed.  Better continue the stalk and hope to get a standing shot, or, failing that, a running one.

It looked a nasty descent, since silence was essential—­steep, slippery, and strewn with round stones.  Anyhow, he could go down on his feet, which was something to be thankful for, as it was agony to put a knee or elbow to the ground.  He crept on.

Surely his luck was changing, for here he was, within fifty yards of a stone behind which lay an unsuspecting ibex with a world’s-record head.  Hullo! a nasty little precipice!  With a nastily sloping shelf at the bottom too, eight feet away—­and then another little precipice and another sloping shelf at its base.