368 On Gun Accidents, 



woodsman's rifle would have sounded far more unpleasant, could I 

 have heard it just then. I sprang up to see if I could get a snap 

 shot, but they had gone out of distance. 



Just as I was turning to walk home, I was challenged by a deep 

 voice — 



" Is that you, ?" and a figure rose out of the scrub where it 



had been hidden. 



It was one of the Canadians ! We stared at one another for 

 a while, as if each were an apparition. 



"Waall, my bully, I guess you never was nearer than 



you've been for the last five minutes. I've had my rifle three 

 times up to my shoulder, but I took it down again because I could 

 not get a clear pull at your head !" 



It seems that the backwoodsman knew of these kangaroo as well 

 as myself, and had planted himself in the scrub for a shot before I 

 got down. But he had not seen the kangaroo at all. I had crept 

 down on the other side (little expecting any one was near me) so 

 quietly that he never heard me till I got into the scrub. His atten- 

 tion was then altogether directed to my movements. He took 

 me to be a kangaroo coming right towards him. I was rather too far 

 from him for him to make me out distinctly, and as I never kept my 

 head long above the scrub, he never had time to get a clear shot j 

 but a few more steps would have sealed my fate, for I was gradually 

 coming well within shot, and in fact, as he told me afterwards, had 

 I only raised my head on the last occasion instead of springing right 

 up, he should probably have pulled, for he was getting tired 

 of waiting — and I should never have lived to tell the tale. It is 

 not every man who can boast that he has been within range of 

 the muzzle of a backwoodsman's rifle pointed well on him, and 

 escaped as I did. We went back to our tent to supper, and both 

 agreed that stalking kangaroo at night was "hardly safe." 



But the darkest day in my life was when I saw perhaps my 

 dearest friend (for we were both then just at the age when true and 

 indelible friendships are formed) shot dead within two yards of me 

 by his own rifle, as he was pitching it over the gate to another of 



