26 Leaves from an Indian Jungle. 



A light pattering sounded behind me. I turned in 

 surprise to see the lean head of an old wild bitch quickly 

 withdrawn in the grass ! Then came a yap, and a scamper- 

 ing in the jungle ; then another yap ; and, paralysed with 

 fear for a moment, I laid my antlers craftily back, and 

 crept away at right angles. In vain ! A long line of my 

 fierce little hunters were extended in a fan, and, overlap- 

 ping me, were swiftly closing in ! 



Turning, I lumbered up the kkora, and, breaking into a 

 panic-stricken gallop, glanced behind to see the horrid, 

 mute line of leaping, skulking red forms pouring from the 

 woods in grim earnest. 



What a chase ! Climbing over spurs dashing down the 

 far side scattering the clucking spurf-owl bursting 

 through the brittle jungle ! 



Once I sought to turn aside, but their flank was thrown 

 swiftly forward, and headed me back. Realising that the 

 easily loping brutes behind were driving me as they listed, 

 I grew desperate and made a sudden dash for a side glen : 

 the scraggy old bitch I had first seen came up with a rush, 

 and her jaws closed like a vice on my belly ; then, as I 

 frantically plunged through some bamboos, was torn away, 

 the blood pouring from the red gash. 



On I clattered over the boulders, among which there now 

 began to trickle a thin muddy stream, and, turning a bend, 

 the fresh smell of rain-soaked earth struck my nostrils, as, 

 carrying on its breath a distant peal of thunder, the first 

 wild rush of the monsoon struck the groaning forest ! 



Large drops of rain met me as I laboured at a wearying 

 gallop up the deep-cut ravine, and at length sighted the 

 refuge I had sought a deep pool under a little ledge of 

 basalt, over which now poured an ever-thickening stream 

 of red, earth-stained water. 



