AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 231 



directions. Frank and the newspaper man started 

 with three others, but soon separated from them to 

 go after a small band which they had sighted about 

 two miles south of camp. 



When within a proper distance, they dismounted, 

 picketed their horses in a swale, and stalking to 

 within about a hundred yards opened fire. A young 

 cow dropped at the first shot, to all appearances 

 dead, and the remainder of the band scurried away, 

 one old bull being badly wounded. The hunters 

 started to run to the top of a ridge, over which the 

 game had gone, to get another shot. As they 

 passed the cow the guide called to his companion to 

 look out for her, as she was only " creased" and 

 liable to get up again and charge them. They had 

 .gone but a few rods, when, sure enough, she did 

 spring to her feet and make a dash at Frank. 

 He turned to shoot her, but his gun missed fire, and 

 as he attempted to throw out the cartridge, the action 

 failed to work, and his gun was, for the moment, 

 disabled. By this time she was almost on him, and 

 as his only means of escape, he sprang into a 

 " washout" (a ditch that had been cut by the 

 water, some ten feet deep), the sides of which were 

 perpendicular. 



He called loudly for help, but his friend had not 

 seen the charge, and was by this time a hundred 

 yards away. He turned and saw the cow, almost 

 blind with rage, rapidly jumping back and forth 

 across the washout, in a mad effort to get at the 

 guide, but she seemed unwilling to jump down into 

 it. She was shot through the throat, and the blood, 

 flowing from her in torrents, had deluged poor 



