Soldiering and Sport in Uganda 



succeeded in wounding him. Thus far I had Htde 

 or no cause to congratulate myself. I was, how- 

 ever, to get yet one more opportunity. While I 

 stood reloading, an old bull, who had cunningly 

 remained behind, thinking the moment advantage- 

 ous, charged headlong at an acute angle to our 

 position, with a view, I suppose, of catching up the 

 remainder of the herd. I had collected my wits by 

 now, and took a pretty careful aim. I missed his 

 heart, but, as I afterwards ascertained, by a very little. 

 I must have damaged some essential factor of his 

 inner vitals, for he stopped short, and I made sure 

 he was done for. I fancy that he was merely trying 

 to catch a whiff of his adversary, but the wind was 

 right, and the next moment, foiled in his aim, he 

 had plunged furiously away on his course once 

 more. I lost no time in taking" a second shot at 

 him, and this time I hit him in the neck, which 

 brought him down at once. 



Now the trouble ensued. I knew I had 

 wounded two of the buffalo quite close to where 

 I had killed number three. I had heard too 

 many stories of these wounded animals to risk 

 wading through that heavy grass without taking 

 every precaution. I only had a very vague 

 idea where they might be. My orderly, quite 

 heedless of my warnings, went in ahead of me, 

 and not wishing to show the white feather, keep- 

 ing my rifle at my hip, I followed him. We 

 first came upon the one I had shot in the neck 

 lying dead at the foot of a tree. That was com- 



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