120 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



on one leg, with his hands joined despairingly, as we swept 

 through the lush vegetation. 



A howl, and a small white terrier flung into the air 

 from a bush, put us on the track once more, and this first 

 of "first spears" was scored by a lucky jab downwards, 

 as the boar rushed with a vicious lunge right and left 

 between our horses' legs. " Ware blind wells ! " we yell, 

 and the chase is resumed, to merge finally into a furiously 

 struggling mass of stamping hoofs, angry grunts, and 

 upraised spear-shafts, where the harried pig, gnawing a 

 fetlock or two and desperately fighting to rise, gives up 

 the ghost with evident relief and, in the spirit, is fled from 

 the horrible inferno which, in the body, he could not escape. 



Our local "cowboy" now dismounted, and, despite re- 

 monstrances, " killed " the already dead boar several times 

 over by inserting a large species of knife into the limp 

 carcase. 



Being the first time we had worked the Pakhal Naddi, 

 the ground was more or less unknown to us, and a good pig 

 got away, unseen, in the direction of the Chandrabhaga 

 a river that comes down from the hills about a couple of 

 miles to the west, which was the nearest haven of security 

 for pigs driven from the Pakhal. 



There now ensued a long period of inaction and patient 

 waiting. In time, however, the faint popping of kawit 

 bombs and the crack of blank cartridge sounded nearer, 

 mingled with the music of kerosene tins ; and after a 

 while the bushes parted, close to where I had been posted 

 with another spear H. and an enormous grey pig 

 emerged, halted, eyed us an instant, and with a rt humph ! " 

 of churlish disgust turned and trotted coolly along the 

 covertside, to disappear again into its shelter as he made 

 off upstream. He was shortly followed by a fine black 

 boar, a shade bigger if anything, who pursued the same 

 casual tactics with even less hurry. However, they must 

 have put on the pace after this, for a few seconds later 



