A Canvas Canoe 295 



Anyhow, there came the usual fearful explosion 

 and kick, the canoe gave an awful lurch, up went 

 my heels into the air, and I found myself lying 

 on my back, and the canoe nearly full of 

 water. She was still floating, however. Gul 

 Sher had extracted the twelve - bore from the 

 bottom of the canoe, and was pouring the water 

 out of the barrels. 



But the duck? Not a single one lay dead on 

 the water, and not even a cripple. I had evidently 

 shot over the whole lot. The exclamation that 

 left my lips is not to be recorded. Wet and un- 

 happy, we baled out the boat and paddled on. 



" We nearly upset that time," I remarked. 



"Yes, sahib" replied Gul Sher; "but I just 

 managed to save us." 



"You ! " I said. "Why, if you had kept the canoe's 

 head straight it would never have happened." 



"That may be, sahib," he replied; "but I knew 

 that when you fired the TopJchana, unless I held 

 the boat very tight we should upset, so I lay down 

 the paddle and held both sides with all my might, 

 and thanks to that we are still afloat. But it was 

 a very near thing," he added. 



It was a day of disasters. Farther on I missed 

 a single gadwal that came over us. At the Pandur 

 Lake we took the canoe out of the water to go 

 to camp, as there was nothing there in the wild- 



