STILL-IIUNTING THE AXTELOPE. 



327 



approaching me, bullet after bullet came singing merrily 

 along until I became painfully aware that I was in a very 

 undesirable place. Up to this time, however, I had not 

 apprehended much danger; but when the soldiers closed in 

 from their side, and began pelting away, and I found 

 myself hemmed in on all sides, I was decidedly uncom- 

 fortable. - 



What made it worse, the bullets, before reaching me, 

 nearly all struck the ground, so that they came tumbling 

 and ricocheting over my head, broadside or butt-end on, 

 screeching and screaming in their dangerous tiight; buzzing, 

 at times, so allhred close that, had I been equipped with an 

 intrenching tool, I would soon have buried myself. 



During the lulls in the firing, which were of short 

 duration, I signaled several times to the soldiers not to kill 

 me, but kept on shooting, and succeeded in tumbling over, 

 in all, eight Antelope. I could have killed four or fi*-e 

 times that number had I accepted the easy, close shots that 

 presented themselves; but I was shooting for practice as 

 well as for meat, and took only running-shots, at from one 

 hundred and fifty to two hundred yards. I must have fired 

 at least forty shots to make this killing. 



Several terrified Antelope stood panting, all the way 

 from fifty yards up, and a couple stood staring at me, in 

 wild amazement, at not over thirty yards. So near were 

 they that I could distinctly see their flanks undulating, 

 from sheer exhaustion, after their mad racing back and 

 forth, running the gauntlet of hundreds of bullets. One 

 poor fellow, I well remember, stood with staring eyes and 

 open mouth, catching his wind, quite close to me, so para- 

 lyzed with fear and fatigue that he seemed not to care 

 whether he lived or died. I was admiring the graceful 

 beauty of his form, moralizing on the wanton destruction 

 that had overtaken these lovely animals, and speculating 

 on what would be the end of this jaunty fellow himself, 

 when suddenly, with a stiff-legged bound, he rose up and 

 fell in the agonies of death. At the same instant I lieard 

 the whiz of a ricochet bullet, and on walking up to the poor 



