184 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



with him, I mounted in a jiffy, and after clearing three or 

 four fields I spied the pig hesitating at the edge of a cotton- 

 field as to which way he would turn. " He that hesitates 

 is lost " — I lost him. 



I went home and dreamt about him, and the next 

 morning beat the neighbouring covers. I had hardly 

 entered them, when a boar, twice the size of my friend of 

 the previous day, jumped up, and away we went. After 

 smashing through a couple of cactus hedges, we jumped 

 another into a lane, where, not expecting a drop, I broke 

 my right stirrup leather in landing, and turning sharp to 

 the right — the lane was winding and the boar a knowing 

 one — he slipped through the hedges directly I pressed 

 him, and generally managed to sell me at the corners of the 

 fields by going through the side hedge instead of the one 

 ahead, thus giving me two jumps to his one. He led me 

 across two lanes, double jumps, that no horse could clear, 

 and I had to jump through them. At last I was closing 

 on him in a thick cotton-field, when the horse's legs caught 

 in the cotton and castor-oil stalks, and down he came. I 

 flew over his head, taking the saddle with me, for the girths 

 gave. I was up again in time to see the boar turn down a 

 lane to the left : I jumped on my bewildered horse and rode 

 him barebacked down the lane as hard as he could pelt. 

 The lane luckily led into the open, where I saw the old boar 

 making the most of his time for the next cover. Settling 

 myself well down to my horse's backbone I urged him across 

 the open, and just as the boar plunged into another thick 

 cotton -field I collared him. He turned on me so sharp 

 and unexpectedly that, as you, reader, would have done 

 nine times out of ten in such circumstances, I missed him, 

 and oh, misery ! driving my spear into the ground, split 

 the shaft half-way up. Grasping it together as a drowning 

 man may grasp a straw, I rushed at him again, this time 

 prepared for anything. As I came up, he, as I expected, 

 charged desperately; down went my spear between his 

 shoulder-blades where neck and body join — first spear and 

 last spear, for it rolled him over dead, and thus I broke 

 my luck. 



