112 INDIAN BIG GAME 



Good old Hussain, I wonder whether he is still 

 alive ! no better syce has ever served me. 



Next morning we made an early start and kept 

 to the bridle-track till we clearly saw the hoof- 

 marks of the bison crossing it. Within a couple 

 of hundred yards of the road we found the bull 

 stone dead ; he had evidently lain down soon after 

 we gave up the chase and never rose again. 



On the 10th of May I got a fairly big male 

 panther and very nearly had an accident to my 

 Sholaga. I had wounded the panther the evening 

 before, and feeling sure he was dead, picked up 

 on my way quite a boy Sholaga by the name of 

 Chick (i.e. little) Massana. We easily found the 

 tracks, and after following a bit, noticed the 

 animal had vomited up the previous meal. 

 While I was looking curiously at this, Massana 

 wandered ahead, and I was suddenly roused from 

 my cogitations as to where the bullet had got 

 the panther, by hearing a shriek from the boy. 

 I looked ahead and saw the panther crouching 

 in a ditch in the act of springing on the Sholaga ; 

 my aim was instantaneous and fortunately true, 

 catching him fair in the shoulder, thereby crump- 

 ling him on the spot, and to make quite sure of no 

 further attempt at attack I followed up quickly 

 with a left before he could recover. I scolded 

 the boy severely for going ahead, pointing out to 

 him what might have happened if I had missed. 



The ground being fairly open and only grass, 

 the boy had fortunately seen the animal in time, 

 as no doubt the brute was lying low with the hope 

 of being stumbled over, in which case one of us 

 would have been mauled. 



