THE BANTING 119 



rather that an ill-placed bullet should have 

 brought him to a standstill at all. It was a 

 piece of luck that the first bullet had struck him 

 as far forward as it did. Had it merely passed 

 through the centre of the body, I should probably 

 have seen the last of him. 



The ears of this bull were torn to ribbons 

 from bygone fights, in one of which he had 

 probably lost his eye; but there were no recent 

 scars about him. He had either ousted a rival 

 from the herd without difficulty or, more prob- 

 ably, had joined a herd in which there were only 

 young bulls too wise to dispute his supremacy. 

 The curious thing about the whole incident 

 was the pertinacious way in which the herd 

 had stuck to him, rather reversing the usual 

 order of things. We found, by the way, 

 the tracks of the herd again where the bull 

 fell. It must have been close by when he was 

 finally overtaken and killed, having probably 

 crossed the stream higher up. It was 8.30 a.m. 

 when I fired the first shot, and 2.30 p.m. when 

 he was killed. So much for a badly placed 

 bullet ! 



This was a most satisfactory termination 

 to a successful shoot, and cleared up incon- 

 testably a mooted point which had troubled 

 me for many a day. If anyone after this still 

 believes that solitary bulls are always solitary, 

 I can only say to him what the lawyer said to 



