IN SEARCH OF BIG GAME. 
25 
business. We had not crossed the river more than half an 
hour when I saw right in front of me a h\g black mass slowly 
rising from the ground, then made out the f(jrm of a huge 
seladang turning round in my direction at about thirty yards 
distance. The jungle was fairly open and I had a compara- 
tively clejir view of the beast. But what was clear to me was 
equally clear to the sehidaug and just as I fired at his shoulder 
he gave a bound which turned him right round and I had 
the horril>le feeling that I had missed him. Vasin, who was 
cjiiite unconscious of the proximity of the seladang— he was 
slightly to the right of the line of fire— was considerably 
startled at the shot. The seladang in his rush became 
entangled in a mass of creepers which nearly fetched him 
over, and we could hear, although not see distinctly, a tremen- 
dous c<immotion going on for a second or so before he got 
clear. We waited for a few minutes — never run in to a 
wounded seladang in thick jungle without you want to get 
into trnuble^ — and then, with many misgivings. I went up to 
the place where he had been lying down. Following the 
track a few yards we saw where he had been caught by the 
creepers, a few yards further on we found a spot of blood, 
still a little further a "shambles.'' Well, it was all ri<rht after 
all. I had not missed him any way, he was pretty badly hit 
too. and, with so much blood showing, most likely in the neck. 
Following a rule that I always try to observe, that is to give a 
wounded selndang that has got away a good half an hour 
before folhm-ing him. although one may think that he is so 
badly hit that we will be too far gone to fight, we sat down 
on a* convenient ant-hill and waited- The sound of the shot 
had brought up the men who were behind ; they were of 
course very anxious to know what had happened, and were 
rather mystified to find us sitting down allowing the seladang 
to get awav. Suddenly \vc heard a noise not verj' far 
ahead of us. I at once jumped to my feet and listened 
carefully; again the s.nme noise and I felt sure that it was 
the seladang which had either fallen or lain down and 
was kicking his hind legs about as he lay on his side. The 
half hour was not up, but as it seemed that the beast had 
not gone a hundred yards before being incapacitated, a 
cautious advance was now permissible. But only Yasin 
and I went on. 
Following the track and going very slowly indeed, we 
presently heard again a repetition of the previous noise but 
now it was quite close to us. Then there was a scrambling 
noise followed by a crash. After this not a sound was to be 
heard and we moved on a little more. We were in a very 
