Melursus Diabolicus. 37 



flap of tunnelled muscles ; and still no pain of any kind ! I 

 uncorked my water-bottle of clean boiled water, and direct- 

 ed its stream from some height into the ragged apertures ; 

 examined them again, cleaned them out, and bound 

 the leg round with a pocket handkerchief and strips of 

 pagri cloth and I never felt fitter in all my life ! 



The Jat, Mulloo, was meanwhile regaling the party with 

 a vivid description of the catastrophe, and his solemn 

 round eyes and broad-mouthing speech so tickled me, as he 

 explained, with very illustrative gestures, how I had fallen 

 forwards and, fixing rny hands in its shaggy coat, mounted 

 that howling, horrified bear, before, accompanied by our 

 satellites the hat, rifle, and little bear, we had gone revolv- 

 ing down, that I leant back and roared with a laughter that 

 went a long way in allaying the fears of the faithful fellows 

 attending me. 



The only now practicable way off the hill vtzs past the 

 cave again, and down a rough mass of boulders, and suffi- 

 ciently arduous it was indeed. Meanwhile the shikari, 

 who had gone down to pick up the pieces of my rifle, 

 brought up the carcase of the bear cub, with my bullet hole 

 in its forehead. The little brute, clinging to its mother's 

 shaggy shoulders, had intercepted or at least set up the 

 bullet considerably. Whether the she-bear got any of it is 

 not known. She went slowly off round a spur of the hill, 

 halting twice en route, say the men. 



Camp, six miles off, was reached at last on a stretcher 

 made of two poles and a pagri. Here to my concern it 

 was found that most of the perchloride of mercury mixture 

 I had brought with me had leaked from the glass- stoppered 

 bottle ; but a little was left, and, making up the solution, I 

 washed and syringed out the wounds, now feeling faint 

 from pain. 



