378 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



puny antagonist and remove their enormous frames from 

 his Lilliputian attack. However, some years ago, a sports- 

 man met his death, in those very jungles, from the horns of 

 a bull that he had wounded. The story runs that he had 

 gone out one morning on the tracks of a big bull which he 

 had hit the previous evening. He was armed with a heavy 

 black-powder rifle probably an 8-bore and coming on 

 the bull lying down in an open glade, he approached peril- 

 ously near, in order to finish it off; and was charged. The 

 bull is said to have chased him to a tree, round which the 

 unfortunate man dodged, and on each side of which he 

 then seized his pursuer's spreading horns. In such un- 

 equal strife the Bubalus and his opponent did not struggle 

 long. The sportsman was tossed easily aside, and then 

 terribly gored, one great horn completely penetrating his 

 body. When the bull left him his retainers rushed up, but 

 their master was beyond all aid. He ejaculated the one 

 word " Water ! " and was dead before their eyes. 



Such calamities shock the keen shikari, and a narrow 

 escape may teach him greater caution ; but it is rare that 

 these deter him from again embarking on his engrossing 

 pursuit. 



The jungle again exercises its compelling fascination ; 

 the mind's eye pictures its delights ; the rifle old friend 

 emerges from its case, caressed once more of fond hands ; 

 Time, healer of scars physical and mental, does his 

 appointed work ; and Nature leads the wanderer once 

 more to her beloved solitudes. At first the hunter returned 

 may start and handle his weapon sharply at a rustle in the 

 bushes ; a sudden clamour, or, more still, the harsh voice 

 of a wild beast, may momentarily unnerve him ; but 

 gradually he will, with a smile, return to the old ways, and 

 his experiences of the past become but additional jungle 

 lore to enrich the memory. 



But this is wandering from our speiroceros ! Yet, after 

 all, what is it that exercises that unfailing attraction that 



