206 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



given him a couple of cracks on his head with a 

 hammer-headed hunting-whip to extinguish any 

 spark of life, and finding we neither of us had any 

 knife with us to take off his brush, my friend 

 cantered off to the hospital to get one. 



The dogs were all lying down panting some 

 little distance off, and I had for the moment turn- 

 ed my back to what I supposed was a dead jackal. 

 Suddenly the dogs jumped up in a great state of 

 excitement, and the next moment I saw my sup- 

 posed defunct quarry making off. He was, how- 

 ever, soon run into, and then the worry was 

 repeated, and I hammered his skull into what I 

 fancied must be a pulp ; my friend reappearing 

 shortly after, we deprived the jackal of his brush ; 

 but the knife was too blunt to cut his throat, so 

 carrying his body to the Ganges Canal, which 

 was only some two hundred yards distant, we 

 flung it in. 



We watched the body float down the rapid 

 stream some little way, then it seemed to revive ; 

 presently the head came uppermost, and the next 

 moment we saw our friend actually swimming, 

 and after a minute or two the poor maimed brute 

 gained the opposite bank, and, crawling under a 

 bush, disappeared, and we never saw him again. 



I trust that this may not be considered an Indian 

 story, for I can vouch for the truth of every word, 



