MELURSUS "DIABOLICUS" 109 



To a certain extent a kind of semi-unconsciousness then 

 seems to have supervened ; for it appeared to be quite a 

 long time after this that there came a sudden shock, and a 

 numb sensation seized my back and side. In a sort of 

 mist I saw the shaggy body of the bear hurled far from me 

 into space ; and then there came a distant deep thud, and, 

 after it, a faint rattling crash ah ! my poor dear rifle, that 

 was you, was it not ? 



Slowly I became conscious that I was clutching some- 

 thing ; things seemed all anyhow. Then I became aware 

 that it was a little tree that was gripped in the strength of 

 despair, and that I was hanging on to it, head downwards, 

 on the face of the cliff itself ! 



My Jat orderly's voice soon sounded in my ear. " Arrt 7 

 Bhagwdn ! Bhagwdn!" I heard him pant. " Bach-gay a! 

 Bach-gaya!" ("Escaped! escaped!") The plucky fellow 

 had crawled down that awful slope, having in the first 

 place, ere ascending the fatal hill, luckily enough happened 

 to remove his shoes. And now he managed to seize one 

 of my hands, I was somehow drawn upwards, and, getting 

 on to the curve of the slope, was assisted up to the ledge, 

 where I sat down. 



My first thought, I must confess, was "Bear!" and a 

 weight seemed suddenly lifted off my chest as I realised 

 that the brute would find it impossible to reach me again. 

 Instantly a feeling of resentment supervened, bitter and 

 cruel in its intensity, and, as my eyes fell angrily on the 

 jungle below, I eagerly stretched out a hand for my 

 weapon. But alas ! had I not heard its splintering crash 

 in that terrible fall ? 



Then it was that my gaze fell on one tiny, solitary tree 

 less than a sapling that clung to the cliffside. And I 

 thought of bears no more, seized with a silent amazement 

 at that miraculous escape. 



That little branch, no thicker than a man's ankle, but of 

 wondrous toughness, rooted in some mere chink in the 



