His heart began to burn, if his limbs were deadly cold; and
quickly he was on the ground, too, moving himself up alongside the
keeper. The glass was given him, but his trembling fingers could not
hold it straight; he put it down, and by and by his natural eyes showed
him what he thought were some slightly moving objects.
"There's two of them--two stags," Roderick whispered, "and we can get
at them easily if there's no more wandering about that I cannot see.
Mebbe the others are over that hull. There's one of them is a fine big
beast, but he has only the one horn; the other one, his head is not
ferry good. But a stag is a stag whatever; and the evening is wearing
on. Now come aweh with me, sir."
What Roderick meant by getting at them easily Lionel was now to find
out; he thought he would never have done with this agonizing stooping
and crawling and wading through burns. Long before they had got to the
neighborhood of the deer, he wished heartily that the night would come
suddenly down, or the stags take the alarm and make off--anything, so
that he might be released from this unspeakable toil and suffering. And
yet he held on, in a sort of blind, despairing fashion; the idea in his
head being that if nature gave way he would simply lie down and fall
asleep in the heather--whether to wake again or not he hardly cared.
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