70 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



sight of a sounder of wild pig feeding on a plain, and 

 after a neat stalk got within I 5 yards of one and 30 of 

 another, the others were all round us, but were smaller. 

 I fancied the nearest was the old boar of the sounder, 

 especially when I saw him trot in our direction ; indeed, 

 I began to think he had spied us, and was going to 

 charge, but he settled down, and went on rooting up 

 the ground ; it then struck me if I shot the 3O-yard 

 one which looked the bigger of the two, the other, if it 

 were the boar, would charge, and I should, if I shot well, 

 get the two. Accordingly I fired, when, instead of 

 charging, away went the whole herd as hard as they 

 could, the one I fired at among the rest. I thought 

 I could not have missed altogether, so looked about and 

 found blood, tracked it up, and when the traces stopped, 

 described circles ; the second I took I found a fine old 

 sow dead as mutton lying among the rocks ; the ball 

 had gone a little too high. This was good sport 

 before breakfast. I then went home, had something to 

 eat, and set off by myself to try my luck. I never had 

 W0 rse never till that night did I know what it was to 

 be regularly miserable ; not one single head of game was 

 to be seen, and I did walk a great way. When looking at 

 my watch I found I had got one hour to go back what 

 had taken me four, and it was uphill, and such uphill 

 work ; a terrific toothache came on ; it nearly drove me 

 mad I was completely done up, and the pain made 

 me worse. I was knocked about in the most painful 

 way ; my feet ached and ached again ; I thought I 

 should never get back ; it came on pitch dark, and I 

 had two jungles to go through infested with tigers that 

 is to say, only this morning I had seen the marks on a 

 tree where one had sharpened his claws. In the day- 

 time these jungles are so thick one can scarcely find 

 the way ; once lost in them at night and one's chances 



