A CURIOUS EXPERIENCE 353 



back, the hair on his withers bristling. &quot;Tirez, 

 m sieu, tirez; vite, vite!&quot; called Arthur, and 

 when the bull was not thirty feet off I put a 

 bullet into his chest, in the sticking point. It 

 was a mortal wound, and stopped him short; 

 I fired into his chest again, and this wound, too, 

 would by itself have been fatal. He turned 

 and recrossed the stream, falling to a third 

 shot, but as we approached he struggled to 

 his feet, grunting savagely, and I killed him as 

 he came toward us. 



I was sorry to have to kill him, but there 

 was no alternative. As it was, I only stopped 

 him in the nick of time, and had I not shot 

 straight at least one of us would have paid 

 forfeit with his life in another second. Even 

 in Africa I have never known anything but a 

 rogue elephant or buffalo, or an occasional 

 rhinoceros, to attack so viciously or with such 

 premeditation when itself neither wounded nor 

 threatened. 



Gentle-voiced Arthur, in his delightful habi 

 tant s French, said that the incident was &quot;pas 

 mal curieux.&quot; He used &quot;pas mal&quot; as a super 

 lative. The first time he used it I was com 

 pletely bewildered. It was hot and sultry, and 

 Arthur remarked that the day was &quot;pas mal 

 mort.&quot; How the day could be &quot;not badly 



