Melursus Diabolicus* 35 



With fingers gripped tight in some harsh long hair, or 

 clutching at elusive rock-slopes, we bump and whirl swiftly 

 downwards instinctive ideas of the cliff awaiting us 

 darting through my whirring brain ! 



To a certain extent a species of unconsciousness then 

 seems to have supervened ; for it appeared to be long after 

 this that there came a sudden shock, and a numb sensation 

 seized my back and side. In a kind of mist I saw the 

 shaggy body of the bear hurled far from me into space ; 

 and then there came a distant deep thud and, after it, a 

 faint rattling crashah! my poor dear rifle, that was you ; 

 was it not ? 



Slowly I became conscious that I was clutching some- 

 thing : things seemed all anyhow. Yes; it was a little 

 tree that was gripped in the strength of despair, and 

 I was hanging on to it, head downwards, on the face of 

 the cliff itself ! 



My Jat orderly's voice soon sounded in my ear. " Oh, 

 Bhagwdn ! Bhagwdn /*' I heard him pant, " he is saved !" 

 The plucky fellow had crawled down that awful slope, 

 having in the first place, ere ascending the fatal hill, 

 luckily enough removed his shoes. And now he managed 

 to seize one of my hands, I was somehow drawn upwards, 

 and, getting on to the curve of the slope, was assisted up to 

 the ledge, where I sat down. 



My first thought, I must confess, was "Bear!" and a 

 weight seemed suddenly lifted off my chest as I realized that 

 the brute would find it impossible to reach me again. After 

 that a feeling of resentment supervened, bitter and cruel 

 in its intensity, and, as my eyes fell angrily on the jungle 

 below, I eagerly stretched out a hand for my weapon. 

 But alas (had I not heard its splintering crash in that 

 terrible fall ! 



