Now was the time for all his desperate and summoned calmness. He shut
his lips firm, breathing only by his nose; he gradually pushed his way
through the tall, withered grass; and at last, when he was almost side
by side with Roderick, he peered forward. They were startlingly near,
those brown and dun beasts with the branching antlers!--he almost shrank
back--and yet he gazed and gazed with a strange fascination. The stags,
which were not more than fifty or sixty yards off, were quite
unconscious of any danger; they were quietly feeding; sometimes one of
them would cease and raise his head and look lazily around. Just at this
moment, too, a pale sunlight began to shine over the plateau on which
they stood; and a very pretty picture it lit up--the silver-gray rocks,
the wide heath, and those slim and elegant creatures grouped here and
there as chance directed. Every single feature of the scene (as he
discovered long thereafter) was burned into Lionel's brain; yet he was
not aware of it at the time; his whole attention, as he imagined, was
directed towards keeping himself cool and restrained and ready to obey
Roderick's mute directions. The rifle was stealthily given to him, and
as stealthily pushed through the grass.
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