188 A WONDERFUL XARRATIVK. 



I made a movement to change my position, but lost my 

 equilibrium and fell. Happily, I let go my rifle, stretched 

 out my arm, and seized a branch. Then I found myself 

 suspended in a very awkward fashion ; my feet were not 

 more than five feet from the ground, and below me the 

 peccaries were tossing to and fro, in hungry expectation 

 of seizing and rending their prey. Fortunately their 

 efforts were vain. I thought myself saved ; but mark 

 now the extraordinary instinct of these animals ! Several 

 of them lay down on their bellies ; others mounted on the 

 backs of these ; and so they formed a kind of ladder, on 

 the top of which an enormous peccary mounted to the 

 attack, and seized me by my right heel. With the other 

 leg I resisted stoutly, and struck out like a horse. During 

 the struggle the living staircase gave way, and there was 

 the peccary himself suspended to my foot by his tusks, 

 while his companions growled and grunted around us with 

 an infernal clamour. My arms began to feel the strain, 

 and I saw with alarm that I should be forced before long 

 to let go my grasp of the branch. Suddenly the report 

 of a gun sounded in my ears. The shock flung me to the 

 ground ; I rolled over the enraged peccary : he was dead ! 

 My friend, coming up in the nick of time, had shot 

 him through and through. Immediately picking up my 

 rifle, I placed myself at his side, and we both took ven- 

 geance on the enemy ; twenty-five peccaries lay dead on 

 the field of battle." 



This narrative, told with imperturbable assurance, and 

 the most dramatic gestures, in a voice full of emotion, 

 turned pale the cheeks of many of the Texan's auditors, 

 of those especially who had never been initiated into the 

 wild life of the Backwoods. 



