364 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



this time more vehemently. (My friend and guide, re- 

 member, was giving me every privilege of first shoty and 

 had, as it were, the right in some measure to direct my 

 movements.) So, though the great game was in the worst 

 possible position for a fatal shot, viz. almost stem on, and 

 between 100 and 150 yards away, whereas he would soon 

 have ranged alongside at fifty paces, I decided to trust 

 to my "450 Express and to the exceptional opportunity 

 for a steady aim. He swung a little as he picked his way 

 across the swampy ground, and, as his right side showed 

 for a moment, 1 delivered a bullet as near his shoulder as 

 I could. He halted instanter, raised his proud head, as it 

 were indignant, and I looked to see him fall in his tracks. 

 But he wheeled steadily round, and steadily moved off 

 towards the timbered covert he had left, while the Judge 

 played away with his repeating Winchester, and I sent my 

 second bullet and a third after his retreating form. That 

 he failed to raise even a momentary trot seemed, to my 

 experience of many beasts in various lands, conclusive that 

 he had received mortal hurt, and 1 looked to find him 

 prone or helpless within the trees. Not so my companion, 

 who certainly had enjoyed more frequent opportunity than 

 myself of testing the vitality of an old bull elk. 



" He's just one of them sulky old fellows that isn't 

 used to running, and won't." This is the way he put it, 

 and the sentiment would account in some measure for his 

 being readily satisfied that the bull had gone on, and that, 

 though *' we might stumble across him by chance, this 

 was a big territory in which to find him." No blood was 

 to be seen, and the trail soon got mixed up with others of 

 the morning. So, all too readily it seemed to me, we cast 

 right and cast left, gave up the chase as hopeless, and rode 

 slowly on to other parks and other woods. 



" Can't you eat your luncheon, captain ? " queried the 

 Judge as we sat on the greensward at midday. " No, 

 Judge, I couldn't touch it. I'm at this moment the most 

 miserable man in all America. If I thought that grand 

 fellow wasn't even wounded I would not so much mind, 

 but I know he's gone to die and his horns to rot in the 

 forest." 



