278 THE IMAGE OF WAE 



The bull left the jungle, and, jumping the boundary 

 wall like a hunter, galloped across the plain. I ran 

 down where he had gone and saw blood where he 

 had jumped the wall. Luckily my horse was there, 

 and I jumped on his back. The bull had got a good 

 long start, and was heading for a jungle-covered hill 

 not a mile and a half away. Fortunately I knew 

 the country on this side, so rode as hard as my Arab 

 could lay legs to ground, not after the bull, but 

 towards the hill. My manoeuvre was successful. As 

 I neared the hill I saw the bull on my right, and he 

 saw me. As I expected, he changed his direction, 

 and now made for a lofty range, straight before us, 

 but several miles away. 



Bar accidents I had him now. I pulled the game 

 little bay together and gradually gained on the 

 " chase," to use a nautical expression. The going, 

 which had been simply awful at first, improved as 

 we went. In a couple of miles I w^as within easy 

 range, and felt tempted to get off and fire. But 

 the Arab was new to the work, and, worse still, I 

 had only the cartridges in the rifle. So I determined 

 to stick to him, and in a few minutes more I was 

 alongside. Dropping my reins on to my left arm I 

 raised the rifle and fired. No result at first, but 

 presently the bull pulled up rather suddenly. I held 

 off a bit, thinking I might get a charge, but the 

 poor brute only shook his head threateningly. A 

 gush of blood came from his mouth, his knees 

 tottered, he was down, and in a minute my knife 

 was in his throat. 



Imagine my surprise to find this was the same 

 bull after all. Besides two trifling wounds, he had 

 one in the ribs, and another through the head not 



