40 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



other, and I fancy it was more with a view to 

 comfort me in my disappointment than for any 

 other reason that he remarked, 



4 Golee kya,' ( c He has eaten the bullet '). 



c Yes,' I thought, * I know he is hit, but good- 

 ness only knows where.' 



The only thing to do, however, was to go up to 

 the spot where the bull had been standing and 

 see if there were any traces of blood. This done 

 not a drop was to be seen our faces grew longer 

 and longer, and yet I felt certain I had hit, so, 

 taking up the tracks, we followed them. These 

 showed that he had blundered blindly on his 

 course, smashing down saplings that impeded his 

 progress, like so much grass, and at one place he 

 appeared to have staggered up against a large 

 tree, and been knocked on one side by the con- 

 cussion. Here, too, our hopes rose, for a little 

 blood was visible against the stem. He then, 

 apparently, diverged from his straight course, and 

 led round in a semicircle towards where he had 

 been originally standing. Following on for some 

 three hundred yards we suddenly came upon him, 

 lying stone-dead with the tell-tale little round 

 hole above the elbow, and a little behind the 

 shoulder, and with a stream of frothy blood oozing 

 from his lips that showed he must have died from 

 internal haemorrhage. 



