278 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



cinch and found that the pig had not touched his horse, but 

 that it had run into a choya. Presently the hunter up on the 

 canon side got his frightened horse down. 



'"If my horse had stumbled I believe that pig would have 

 ripped him up,' he said. 'Did you see him? Bristles on his 

 back half a foot high, tusks four inches long.' 



"Manuel had dismounted and was cinching up the saddles 

 and picking cactus spines out of his horse's legs. After he 

 had finished and listened to the views of the hunters he said: 



"'It's no use three hunting at the same time, somebody's 

 bound to get shot or thrown. That pinto horse, he's going 

 to buck the minute he gets his eyes on the pig, and it's the 

 biggest boar I have seen on the island, old and ugly. I don't 

 want to feel his tusk.' 



"'Well, what do you suggest?' asked the East Indian pig- 

 sticker. 'If I had a good lance I would not mind riding him 

 down, but this — well, this is different.' 



"'I say take him one at a time,' repHed Manuel, 'and the 

 rest hold ofi.' 



"'That suits.' 



"The words were not out of the speaker's mouth before a 

 rustle was heard in the brush to the right, and with a tremen- 

 dous ouf! the boar, which evidently had been sneaking up on 

 them under cover, came at the trio Uke a cannon ball. It 

 covered the twenty feet between them and the chaparral seem- 

 ingly in a bound, and was among them before they reaHzed it, 

 striking to the right and left. Manuel being dismounted stood 

 not on the order of going, but ran and scrambled up the slope 

 of the canon, while his bronco reared to avoid the animal, 

 then ran away. The two other horses, despite the efforts of 

 the owners, wheeled and dashed off, the boar after them. 



"The hunter who had stuck pigs in India raUied first, turned 

 his bronco, and forced it at the boar, which had stopped and 

 stood, head up, a picture of fiendishness. It was one of the 

 old-timers without question, combining the quahties of a 

 Florida razorback with the savageness of an East Indian wild 

 boar and the staying powers of a CaUfornia island wild goat. 

 Little wonder an every-day bronco, which had possibly never 

 seen a pig in its Ufe, objected to its presence. 



