264 PERSEVERANCE REWARDED. 



the third day had carried on his tracks from his lair of the second day till 

 they were very fresh, when he left them for fear of disturbing the bull. As 

 long as he did not go up the MQs we were sure of him. 



Next morning — the fourth day — we took up yesterday's track. Eain, 

 that had since fallen, made it difficult at first, till we got on to the tracks 

 made after the rain, when it was easy work. Since morning the bull had 

 been making his way steadily, though grazing and loitering along, to a cover 

 called Kul Bhavi Podaga, a place where we had finished many a good hunt 

 of bear and bison before. When we reached it at mid-day, Gorrava, Jaffer, 

 and I entered alone ; the walking was quiet, there being no undergrowth 

 amongst the bamboo-clumps, and we peered anxiously about as we stooped 

 and crept along to catch sight of the bull if lying down. There was a fine 

 wind in our favour, which was a godsend, as the breezes in valleys amongst 

 liills are often very uncertain. 



The bull was not to be seen, however. Gorrava followed his every step 

 till we could see the open through the bamboo-clumps on the far side. 

 We seemed to be doomed to disappointment ; what could have become of 

 him ? Suddenly Gorrava pointed to him almost at our feet, drinking at a 

 pool under the high overhanging bank of a ravine on which we stood, and 

 which wound a tortuous course through the cover. The bull had first come 

 to the point where we now were, but being unable to descend here he had 

 got down elsewhere, and was now drinking below us ! He had only been 

 a few minutes before us ; our advance was so silent that at ten feet distance 

 he did not hear us. This was indeed poetical justice. What a tramp he 

 had led us ! — at least forty miles in all, though within a radius of ten. 



A bamboo-clump hid his vitals and I had to fire at him too far back. 

 Away he dashed at the shot, the bamboos obstructing my second barrel, 

 out of the ravine and round through the cover. However, I knew that 

 with that in him (an 8 -bore ball and 12 drams), he was a dead bull, and 

 we followed in great glee. The moments in which the result of the chase 

 becomes no longer doubtful, amply reward the sportsman for his willing 

 toU, and are the happiest of his life. 



The bull was off for a well-known bamboo-cover, but not a thick or 

 troublesome one ; he was far from the foot of the glorious hills — his home 

 for who knows how many years, and which he was never to see again ! 

 How little did he think when he left them, to escape the long grass and the 

 myriads of flies, that he was never to return ! It was an evil hour for him 

 when the eye of Gorrava fell upon his tracks ! The spare men having come 

 up, we pushed along with only a small interval between us and them, and 

 as' soon as we got to the cover which the bull had headed for we founa nim 



