Jungle By-Ways in India 



I dropped, for it suddenly flashed across me, as 

 the bull went slowly forward seemingly unharmed 

 and not twenty paces away, that I had but one 

 cartridge left ! I admit the carelessness, but the 

 whole thing had come upon one so suddenly. 

 Jitman, the orderly, with the cartridge-bag and 

 the tiffin man, was behind somewhere in the forest 

 when we started to creep up to the bison, and I had 

 thought in the early morning that four cartridges 

 were enough to carry on one's own person on a 

 hot morning's march when every little bit of extra 

 weight is apt to tell. I sank down on the edge of 

 the drain, extracted silently the two empty 

 cartridge-cases, and shoved in my last one and 

 softly closed the breech. It was a case of over- 

 confidence ! 



The bull was slightly to my left when I fired. 

 As I sank down at the edge of the little drain he 

 moved slowly forward, and I realized to my dis- 

 may that a few paces would bring him broadside 

 on to me within eighteen paces, and as luck would 

 have it, the patch of high tussocky grass which I 

 had fired over ended a little to the left ; in front of 

 me only the short, coarse, cut stuff covered the 

 ground, affording practically no concealment. 

 I got down as low as I could possibly manage, 

 consonant with maintaining a position from 

 which I could fire if the bull charged, and 

 muttered a prayer that he would walk past with- 

 out turning his head my way. He reached a 



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