BROOMSTICK BROUGHT TO BAY. 121 



of his burden, and in spite of all I could shout, with 

 the most perfect disregard for consequences, started 

 for home at a pace so unusual and corky, that I 

 vowed if ever I had leg over him again he should 

 give me a specimen of the same gait for my gratifica- 

 tion. 



I do not think I ever felt more savage in my life. 

 Two or three times I hesitated whether I would try the 

 effect of a leaden messenger after him. If so long 

 a journey to civilisation had not heen before me,. I 

 believe I should, but finally concluded that cutting off 

 your nose to spite your face was at the best an un- 

 satisfactory performance. After spending half-an-hour 

 in dragging the game together, and possibly as much 

 longer in ruminating over the awkwardness of my posi- 

 tion, and the mutability of human and horse affairs, 

 debating the pros and cons whether to return to camp or 

 remain where I was, to my intense satisfaction I saw one 

 of my comrades coming towards me with the now-sub- 

 missive Broomstick captive, and looking as if any pace 

 faster than that of a funeral procession was entirely 

 beyond his powers of exertion. My friend had spied 

 the truant making straight for camp. After an ex- 

 citing chase, he had succeeded in capturing him, when, 

 by taking the direction from which he was seen to 

 come, he happily tumbled across me, much to my 

 relief; for, after all, the little shelter afforded by 

 timber, where you can always have a good fire, is infi- 

 nitely preferable to a smouldering smudge of buffalo - 

 chips, with the wind playing at hide-and-go-seek round 

 your shirt tails. 



The following will give the reader some idea of the 

 hardship and danger to be run by the sportsman who 



