MY BIG TUSKER. 193 



shut the breech again, thus only having my left barrel 

 available. I threw up the gun and gave him a heavy 

 shot on the chest when he was within fifteen yards of me, 

 and dropping the gun threw myself under the bank of 

 the island on my left hand. I can't tell you what I felt like. 

 I felt like nothing. There was no use in feeling like 

 anything. I did what I could, viz., lay there covered 

 with mud from head to foot that was all. 



Fortunately for me, the shot in the chest was a sickener, 

 and the great brute wheeled off at right angles and 

 thundered on through the swamp. 



I jumped up, took the mud out of the muzzles of my 

 gun with my finger and ran on loading as I went. My 

 Dyak corporal hauled me up on an island and said : 

 " Run back hard, sir, he is returning to the jungle and is 

 making a detour; you can cut him off if you are quick 

 about it". I heard him crashing and plunging as he went 

 through the swamp. He was making a quarter circle 

 round us to try and regain the jungle, and I saw that I 

 could cut the chord of the arc and thus get a shot at him 

 as he was crossing the open space which separated the 

 swamp from the jungle. 



We ran on helter-skelter, the corporal being of the 

 greatest assistance to me, and we got back to the edge 

 of the swamp just in time, for as we reached it he came 

 out of the swamp about a hundred yards off and went 

 past us, giving a good broadside shot. As he did so, I 

 gave him both barrels heavily behind the shoulder. I 

 afterwards found the two bullet holes within a few inches 

 of each other. 



He shrunk to each shot, and I knew he had got it 

 very severely. However, he went on. 



I was quite exhausted with excitement and exertion 



