386 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



and moved suspiciously off, first at a walk, then at a gentle 

 trot, slowing down to a walk again as he entered the fringe 

 of jungle, amid which his enemy eagerly awaited his 

 coming. There was a spot where an ant-hill and the butt- 

 end of an enormous fallen tree gave excellent cover, and 

 behind this I had crouched, convinced that the bull would 

 pass within a few yards and afford an easy and deadly 

 shot ; but, when that enormous bulk came into view, to my 

 dismay he had turned, and was making off across rather 

 open ground some hundred and fifty yards distant. 



Anxiously waiting until he had passed behind a heavy 

 clump of bamboos, I made a sudden bolt and darted for 

 a spot about seventy yards farther on, almost cutting his 

 path. There was a very slight depression here, of which, 

 by bending down, it seemed possible to take advantage. 

 On the far side of this grew a few low sal bushes of the 

 kind that often form a very thick undergrowth beneath the 

 parent forest. Creeping forward, rifle held ready, I peered 

 round them. 



Not fifty yards away my huge quarry had just come to a 

 standstill. His great head was turned sideways, nose 

 downward, in comical bubaline fashion. He appeared 

 to regard something in my direction in a quizzical manner 

 out of the corner of his eye. I remember noting his ex- 

 tremely venerable appearance and the enormously power- 

 ful short thick legs, dirty white below the knee, while 

 overcome with a sudden realisation of my own puny 

 proportions. 



The safety-bolt had been pressed forward, and the 

 massive breeched, taper-barrelled "400 -bore cordite rifle 

 was half-way to my shoulder, but a huge curving horn 

 covered most of the vital spot, at any rate would probably 

 interrupt the bullet. 



Slowly, very slowly, that venerable muzzle was raised ; 

 slowly the great ears hinged forward ; the massive neck 

 bent ; and the obstructing horn gradually shifted round. 



