244. DIEGOO. 



of a regular bout at fisticuffs with Bruin, 

 I must take for the actor one of my men, 

 a good and true hunter, as the tale will 

 show. 



Some years after the occurrences just 

 narrated, when I had learnt not to be quite 

 so reckless myself, and preached caution 

 to the more adventurous of my men ; I 

 happened to be sending a messenger into 

 Mvissoorie, and whilst untying my letters, 

 I gave "Dirgoo," the hero of this story, a 

 double gun, telling him to take a walk in 

 the jungle and try to kill a few pheasants, 

 to send in with the dak runner. He took 

 another man with him, and was sauntering 

 along in the forest, when he heard something 

 snore in a thick patch of ringall (not unlike 

 an osier bed in England) ; I must, first 

 however tell you, that having seen a 

 barking-deer by the wayside, he had put 

 a small bullet over one of the charges 

 of shot, but the deer having bolted whilst 

 he was doing so, the bullet remained in 

 the gun. Hearing a noise in the ringalls. 



