CHAPTER LXXIV. 



A STRANGE EXPERIENCE. 



'EST you may think I am romancing, I beg to assure you that the incident 

 which I am describing is true in every particular ; and I may add that the 

 experience of Dick Brownell was similar to that of one other hunter, as I 

 know from my personal knowledge. 



The infuriated wild boar charged so swiftly upon the youth that, as I have said, 

 he reached the pony before the latter could comprehend his peril and gather him- 

 self for flight. 



In accordance with his instincts, the boar ran his head directly beneath the 

 horse, with the intention of disemboweling him by an upward flirt of those terrible 

 tusks ; but, in his rage, he drove his snout beyond the steed, so that, when it was 

 flung aloft, it missed the body of his victim, and the blade-like ivories clove empty 

 air instead of flesh and bone. 



But the swing of the head lifted the pony entirely off his feet, and he fell 

 broadside across the neck of the boar, kicking and striving desperately to free 

 himself from the brute beneath him. 



Dick had dropped his gun and strove to leap from the back of his horse ; but, 

 before he could do so, the latter had fallen, and the boy's foot was inextricably 

 caught in the stirrup. 



Thus it was that the boar supported on his neck, not only the full weight of the 

 pony, but that of his rider also ; and, holding them there, he resumed his swift trot, 

 as though unincumbered with anything of the kind. 



It was a strange sight that Mr. Godkin saw, the kicking pony on his side across 

 the neck of the animal, with the rider entangled also, while the boar himself 

 resumed his trot toward the edge of the jungle, which he had nearly reached when 

 he wheeled about to charge his tormentors. 



This distance, at the very least, was a hundred yards, and, incredible as the 

 statement may seem, the boar trotted it all, carrying the pony and Dick Brownell 

 the entire distance. 



Mr. Godkin was terrified lest the youth should be killed. Springing from the 

 back of his horse, he ran forward with the intention of planting a bullet back of the 

 boar's fore leg, but the risk of hitting either the pony or his rider was so great that 

 he dared not fire. 



The natives, from their place on the edge of the plain, saw that something 

 serious was amiss, and came running to the help of their friends, shouting, brandishing 

 their spears aloft, and eager to do what they could to help the young btit mighty 

 hunter. 412 



