368 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



I was about instantly to lire. Accordingly he had repeated 

 the caution, *' Don't shoot yet," again and again ; distance 

 had carried to me only the word " shoot," and thus I had 

 in the first instance unwillingly pulled trigger prematurely 

 and at a disadvantage. (Another example to add to many 

 in my hunting career, that prompting, however valuable 

 the source, is far more likely to be misleading than the 

 unhampered instinct of one's own experience.) As it 

 happened, the heavy blow of the Express had done its 

 work, the bullet (the late Lord Keane's " split-nosed " 

 pattern) having travelled the body from just behind the 

 shoulder to the spine, there to be cut out of the loin in 

 bent and broken shape. This had served to hinder and 

 cripple the bull. But his extraordinary tenacity of life is 

 shown by the fact that his tawny hide contains no less 

 than seven bullet-holes. In cutting him up, the find of 

 each bullet was treated in camp as a separate excitement, 

 the yield of metal being pronounced by the old prospector, 

 who at present acts for us in the capacity of packer, cook 

 and butcher, as being " superior to that of any mine in 

 Leadville." 



CHAPTER LVIII 



ANOTHER RIDE WITH THE MEADOWBROOK HOUNDS, 

 LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK 



I AM a strong believer in an occasional nerve-test. Perhaps, 

 and certainly nowadays, 1 would scarcely follow the prin- 

 ciple so far as did an intimate friend of mine, who offered 

 himself to be carried by Blondin across the rope stretched 

 from Canterbury Cathedral, and was intensely mortified 

 to find himself anticipated by the late Captain Pritchard 

 Rayner, if 1 remember right. Another earnest advocate 

 of the theory was a brother officer who, in the flogging 

 days of the Army, in all honesty avowed himself anxious 

 to try the tripod " to see whether he could really stand 

 the punishment." Needless to say, he never acquired the 

 opportunity. But he was sincere, and his aspiration, 



