THE TRIAL OF SPEED. 
443 
as lie urged his lahoured and painful retreat thruugli tlie 
heavy sand and between fallen trees and projecting rocks, 
we pressed after him in the vaiii hope that he would out- 
strip his reckless pursuer sufficiently to let us fire with- 
out the risk of hitting the wrong object. But our ex- 
ertions were of no avail. Lawton ran well, and was 
evidently gaining ground instead of losing. iSTevertheless, 
Bruin, having considerably the start, reached the edge of 
the hill-side bushes, in which he disappeared for a moment, 
and then again broke upon the view, as, with out-hanging 
tongue, quick breathing, and laborious movement, he 
dragged his wounded body up the steep and broken hill- 
side. 
He was now considerably above Lawton, and a few 
unsteady shots were fired over the latter’s head, but with 
no apparent effect: the stampede had evidently unsettled 
our nerves. The flurried figure of the pursuer now in 
burn disappeared in the brushwood, and a moment later 
we saw him climbing with frantic strides in the very 
wake of the struggling and disabled monster. He was 
evidently gaining on him, too, and we expected every 
moment to see him turn and hug him in his crushing' 
embrace. 
At this stage of the proceedings I found myself and 
several others bursting our difficult paths through the 
tangled brushwood, and urging each other ahead with 
our voices, but in reality keeping each other buck in our 
extreme eagerness. Suddenly we were at the foot of 
the hill, and, already half broken down by the run, 
commenced its toilsome ascent. 
As we emerged from the thick brushwood and looked 
