African Buffalo Shooting. 177 



till I got behind a good sized tree, and then gave 

 him a shot. It told, but was a little high. In an 

 instant after, the foe wheeled round and went for the 

 smoke. His head could not have been more than 

 a couple of yards off when I gave him another bullet 

 and brought him down on his knees, and before he 

 could recover, I had reloaded ; my attendant had also 

 leaped from his coign of vantage, and was advancing, 

 rifle in hand (he had had to drop it to jump into the 

 tree), but the bull was up in a second, and catching 

 sight of me, rushed for me full pelt, but I stepped 

 behind the tree which he struck with his full force. 

 Simultaneously there was a report, for I fired, almost 

 touching the animal on his shoulder at a point close 

 to the chest. Buddrodeen also shot, his first ball 

 going into my tree unpleasantly close to my head, 

 but the second broke the beast's spine and over rolled 

 our quarry, and was " hal-lal-ed " in a jiffey. My 

 companion now asked me what I had fired at. I 

 told him. " We will follow him up," he said, and off 

 we went for the track. On it there was plenty of 

 blood and froth scattered about. Further search 

 disclosed the body, but close by, sniffing at the 

 blood, was the whole herd. They were not of a 

 uniform colour, like most wild cattle, for there was 

 an albino and a piebald amongst them, both cows. I 

 told Buddrodeen that I coveted their skins. " Very 

 good," said he ; " you take one and I'll take the 

 other." As they were facing us, their noses in the 

 air, snorting and pawing the ground, we expected 

 them upon us any moment, so lost no time in 

 planting steel-tipped conicals in their chests. Mine 

 fell at once : the other attempted to advance, but a 



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