THE JUNGLES OF CHOTA NAGPUR 13 



realized in a flash what it meant. At the same moment 

 down went the head of the bull and with a hoarse roar he 

 charged. I turned, and in a couple of bounds had dropped 

 into the nullah bed. The drop brought me to my knees. 

 I was up in a trice, blundered through the shallow water, 

 my spine deadly cold, and dashed through the low jungle 

 to a large sal tree round which I dived. Pulling up, I cau- 

 tiously looked round the trunk from the opposite side, 

 opening out the rifle and jamming in a fresh cartridge as 

 I did so. The sight I saw caused me to breathe a sigh 

 of rehef and mutter a thankful prayer. 



The bull had not charged home. There he stood on the 

 edge of the little cliff on the far side of the stream, his head 

 swaying from side to side, evidently hard hit and apparently 

 dazed and undecided as to whom to go for. His position 

 was a bad one for a shot, but I was too excited to think of 

 that, and raising the rifle I fired at the head facing me. 

 The animal half turned to the shot, shook his head viciously, 

 but did not drop, and after a few seconds' apparent in- 

 decision set off down-stream, keeping just within the 

 forest. His direction was easily followed from the blundering 

 way he crashed through the undergrowth. 



As soon as I had slipped two fresh cartridges into the 

 rifle I looked round for the shikari. At the same moment 

 a head appeared slowly from behind a neighbouring tree 

 and a pair of eyes, blazing with excitement, gazed into 

 mine, the lower part of the face being set mask-like in a 

 diabolical grin. It was Bishu. His body followed the 

 head, and without a sound he glided up and motioned me 

 to follow as he led the way. Slowly and cautiously we 

 proceeded down our side of the stream, and had gone some 

 fifty yards when out from the edge of the forest on the 

 opposite side, some seventy yards away, slowly walked 

 the bison and entered the bed of the stream, the bank 

 shelving into it at that point. Bishu stepped aside, and I 

 hurried forward for some twenty paces and then again sank 

 on my knee and fired my right barrel, the left being safely 

 at half-cock this time. Without a sound the great bull 

 sank to his knees and rolled over on his side on a gravel 

 bank at the edge of the little stream,which at that point 

 ran deeply under the bank on our side. 



Aflame with excitement and forgetful of my previous 

 experience, I was again about to rush forward when I felt 



