HARD LUCK. 267 



Almost immediately, and as I had expected, I 

 heard a shot, followed in a minute by another. I 



hurried up to the crest, where I found Mac and 



the shikari, but no bull. Mac - told me that the 

 brute had commenced to descend to his right. When 

 it was nearly parallel with him he fired, and it at once 

 broke back. Remembering doubtless that I was 

 behind him it again made downwards, this time to his 

 left. Again he fired, but the bull did not stop and 

 was lost to their sight. Without waiting for the 

 beaters we hastened in pursuit. Not a hundred yards 

 on we found the bull lying under a small tree, stone- 

 dead. He was the finest I have ever seen, his winter 

 coat being nearly black, while in summer they are of 

 blue-gray. One horn was nine inches long, the other, 

 being splintered, was somewhat shorter. * Jerdon, in 

 the "Mammals of India," gives the length of the 

 horns from seven to nine inches, so this is an extreme 

 length. The bullet had hit him in the back-ribs, and, 

 as it was on the left, it was the second barrel that had 

 caused his death. This shows the killing power of 



a i2-bore rifle. As I said to Mac , "If it had 



been your "450 he would have gone on for a week." 



I sent for the bullock-cart, and caused it to be 

 tipped up close to the bull. Even then it took the 

 united efforts of all the beaters, a dozen men, to get 

 it into the cart. We then went off to our breakfast. 



In the afternoon we beat out the jungle I had 

 traversed six weeks before, but with no result. At 

 the far end of it we had our tonga waiting. The road 

 in proved a bad one, we had a miserable pair of 



