TREED BY A WILD BUFFALO. 119 



down his cloth several times, but the brute had 

 grown too wary and would not move. The men 

 declared they saw his eyes gleam and his head move 

 as he watched us, so none dared to get down. I 

 was beginning to feel the constrained position on 

 the branch, and in an attempt to change it I dropped 

 my gun ! Worse and worse. No use attempting to 

 attract the bull now, as we had only Charun's gun 

 and one charge. Natives seldom take out more 

 than a second charge for their guns. We waited 

 an hour, and then Charun signed that he was 

 going down the tree for my gun. I knew that 

 he could swarm up a tree much quicker than 

 I could, so I allowed him to try. He got down 

 very carefully on the side of the tree furthest 

 from the bull, then going on his stomach crawled 

 to the gun, and springing to his feet ran to 

 the tree. His next move took me by surprise. I 

 saw him coolly stalking in the direction of the 

 buffalo. I shouted to him to be careful, but he 

 went on heedless. What had come over the man ? 

 Had he become dazed ? I expected each moment 

 to see him tossed high in the air by the infuriated 

 monster, and I kept his gun on the cock to try 

 the effects of a shot to stop the charge I momen- 

 tarily expected. When he got to within ten paces 

 of the bull he stopped, and motioned to us that 

 the beast was dead. We made haste to get 

 down, and found that such was indeed the case. 

 It had been dead an hour or more. In fact, it 

 must have died immediately after it went down 

 on its fours. An arrow sticking in its flank 



