i:i2 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



the more open ground, and made marvellous progress in 

 spite of his crippled condition. Fallen trees and hidden 

 holes made no difference in our career, nor did even a 

 covered gulch into which George and his rider suddenly 

 dipped to a full twelve feet. 



Soon, however, the wound and his gross fat began to 

 tell upon our game, and at length we found ourselves 

 within fifty yards of him. But a fresh effort downhill 

 carried him almost from view before I could dismount 

 for a killing shot. In agony lest I should lose him, I tried 

 other tactics ; and, keeping him on my left between me 

 and the open nullah, strained every nerve, and every 

 sinew of the now panting George, to get past and round 

 him. The manoeuvre succeeded well ; the big buck 

 edged off into the creek-bed as I galloped on to cut 

 him off at a spot where it shallowed. Reaching the 

 clearing, I was out of saddle in a moment, the nails of 

 my heavy hunting - boot catching in the stirrup and 

 throwing me on my back. (Note this, my fellow-sports- 

 men, as yet another caution against the mad carelessness 

 of taking saddle in nailed boots !) Mat's voice rang 

 gladly down the glade, from the brink of the water- 

 course, " Here he is, Cap'n ; shoot him again ! " His 

 shout roused the great buck to a final struggle. Painfully 

 he laboured down the hollow towards me, and regretfully 

 I planted a bullet into his sleek ribs. Far rather would 

 I have knifed him in fair shikar fashion, as I imagined I 

 could easily have done — though, according to Mat after- 

 wards, such a course would have been directly against all 

 backwoodsmen's rules for self-security. " He'd a been 

 round quicker nor you think. I got throwed twenty feet 

 down a cliff by a broken-legged 'un, and I ain't got no 

 more use for knifing 'em ! No, sir." 



The horns of this veteran buck were very peculiar — 

 the two antlers widespread, being exactly similar, in having 

 three good points atop, but without a sign of any lesser 

 points below. Our men, two of them at least of great 

 experience, agreed that they had never come across a 

 head so regular thus equipped, though the horns of 

 the black-tail buck vary in the most multitudinous fashion. 



