2 7 6 



THE HUNTER'S ARCADIA. 



come to by the leaders of this persecuted crowd, 

 for with a rush, all at the same time dashed forward 

 at what they doubtless supposed the weakest portion 

 of the enclosure, fear appearing to give them 

 additional power of flight, and in a moment after 

 the prey was through our cordon with a bound. The 

 assailants did not escape this concerted attack 

 scatheless, for two of the most active of the hunters 

 on my left were knocked head over heels, and no 

 wonder can such result have been, when the size 

 of the animals, the velocity, and length of their 

 leaps are remembered ; in fact, the concussion that 

 the unfortunates experienced could not have been 

 much unlike one of our home-bred hares being fired 

 at a beater's head out of a catapult. But the hares 

 were gone, and with their departure came a flight 

 of knobkerries past my cranium, which were hurled 

 in pursuit of the escaping animals, that far outdid 

 in danger to human life or limb any of the previous 

 portion of the fray. Fortunately I escaped, but 

 that I solely owed to luck, for a knobkerrie that 

 missed my head wounded my Zulu and smashed 

 my lantern into atoms. 



The slaughter of the innocents had been great, 



