SPORT OF SORTS WITH THE PRINCE 293 



sharply, the agile creature sped across the open to 

 a thick belt of cover on the left flank. We were like 

 to lose him again, this time for ever unless one of us 

 did something. Cecily was badly placed, but I had 

 the chance of a crossing shot, and took it, aiming well 

 forward, as I know from experience that one step of 

 those powerful trotters would place the pig yards 

 ahead whilst my finger was pressing the trigger. 

 Phut ! The bullet told heavily in the joints of his 

 leathery harness. The fierce impetus slackened, 

 slackened, he hardly moved — and ceased. 



Ali would have nothing to do with our prize. He 

 would help us hunt him, but there it ended. We had 

 no means of accurate measurement, but we made him 

 out a veteran of probably forty inches tall, with a 

 fighting weight of some two hundred and fifty pounds. 

 His huge tushes, all we took of him, were much worn, 

 but average good ones. 



As we left the scene the undertakers were flocking 

 to the corpse. Lammergeyers and hawks appeared 

 above the tree tops from nowhere, and a commandant 

 of warlike ants, blackish, knobby-headed insects, led 

 his regiment into action. Exquisite beetles with eyes 

 of luminous horn marched in the rear, and the ferns 

 rustled with the soft stir of hungry creatures. Creeping 

 softly to reconnoitre I saw, in a fleeting second, a 

 small lithe animal, dexterous as a snake. Like Hamlet's 

 cloud he was something like a weasel. I am sure he was 

 a weasel. What luck to be a weasel that glorious 

 night ! 



