Their Footprints Being Well Defined
In The Moist Sandy Soil, We Soon Found The Herd Again; But As
They Now
Knew they were pursued, they kept moving on in short
runs at a time, when, occasionally gaining glimpses of their
Large dark bodies as they forced through the bush, I repeated my
shots and struck a good number, some more and some less severely.
This was very provoking; for all of them being stern shots were
not likely to kill, and the jungle was so thick I could not get a
front view of them. Presently, however, one with her hind leg
broken pulled up on a white-ant hill, and, tossing her horns,
came down with a charge the instant I showed myself close to her.
One crack of the rifle rolled her over, and gave me free scope to
improve the bag, which was very soon done; for on following the
spoors, the traces of blood led us up to another one as lame as
the last. He then got a second bullet in the flank, and, after
hobbling a little, evaded our sight and threw himself into a
bush, where we not sooner arrived than he plunged headlong at us
from his ambush, just, and only just, giving me time to present
my small 40-gauge Lancaster.
It was a most ridiculous scene. Suliman by my side, with the
instinct of a monkey, made a violent spring and swung himself by
a bough immediately over the beast, whilst Faraj bolted away and
left me single-gunned to polish him off. There was only one
course to pursue, for in one instant more he would have been into
me; so, quick as thought, I fired the gun, and, as luck would
have it, my bullet, after passing through the edge of one of his
horns, stuck in the spine of his neck, and rolled him over at my
feet as dead as a rabbit. Now, having cut the beast's throat to
make him "hilal," according to Mussulman usage, and thinking we
had done enough if I could only return to the first wounded bull
and settle him too, we commenced retracing our steps, and by
accident came on Grant. He was passing by from another quarter,
and became amused by the glowing description of my boys, who
never omitted to narrate their own cowardice as an excellent
tale. He begged us to go on in our course, whilst he would go
back and send us some porters to carry home the game.
Now, tracking back again to the first point of attack, we
followed the blood of the first bull, till at length I found him
standing like a stuck pig in some bushes, looking as if he would
like to be put out of his miseries. Taking compassion, I
levelled my Blisset; but, as bad luck would have it, a bough
intercepted the flight of the bullet, and it went "pinging" into
the air, whilst the big bull went off at a gallop.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 51 of 403
Words from 26255 to 26760
of 210958
