Suliman by my side, with the
instinct of a monkey, made a violent spring and swung himself by
a bough immediately over the beast, whilst Faraj bolted away and
left me single-gunned to polish him off.
There was only one
course to pursue, for in one instant more he would have been into
me; so, quick as thought, I fired the gun, and, as luck would
have it, my bullet, after passing through the edge of one of his
horns, stuck in the spine of his neck, and rolled him over at my
feet as dead as a rabbit. Now, having cut the beast's throat to
make him "hilal," according to Mussulman usage, and thinking we
had done enough if I could only return to the first wounded bull
and settle him too, we commenced retracing our steps, and by
accident came on Grant. He was passing by from another quarter,
and became amused by the glowing description of my boys, who
never omitted to narrate their own cowardice as an excellent
tale. He begged us to go on in our course, whilst he would go
back and send us some porters to carry home the game.
Now, tracking back again to the first point of attack, we
followed the blood of the first bull, till at length I found him
standing like a stuck pig in some bushes, looking as if he would
like to be put out of his miseries. Taking compassion, I
levelled my Blisset; but, as bad luck would have it, a bough
intercepted the flight of the bullet, and it went "pinging" into
the air, whilst the big bull went off at a gallop. To follow on
was no difficulty, the spoor was so good; and in ten minutes
more, as I opened on a small clearance, Blisset in hand, the
great beast, from the thicket on the opposite side, charged down
like a mad bull, full of ferocity - as ugly an antagonist as ever
I saw, for the front of his head was all shielded with horn. A
small mound fortunately stood between us, and as he rounded it, I
jumped to one side and let fly at his flank, but without the
effect of stopping him; for, as quick as thought, the huge
monster was at my feet, battling with the impalpable smoke of my
gun, which fortunately hung so thick on the ground at the height
of his head that he could not see me, though I was so close that
I might, had I been possessed of a hatchet, have chopped off his
head. This was a predicament which looked very ugly, for my boys
had both bolted, taking with them my guns; but suddenly the
beast, evidently regarding the smoke as a phantom which could not
be mastered, turned round in a bustle, to my intense relief, and
galloped off at full speed, as if scared by some terrible
apparition.
O what would I not then have given for a gun, the chance was such
a good one! Still, angry though I was, I could not help laughing
as the dastardly boys came into the clearance full of their
mimicry, and joked over the scene they had witnessed in security,
whilst my life was in jeopardy because they were too frightened
to give me my gun. But now came the worst part of the day; for,
though rain was falling, I had not the heart to relinquish my
game. Tracking on through the bush, I thought every minute I
should come up with the brute; but his wounds ceased to bleed,
and in the confusion of the numerous tracks which scored all the
forest we lost our own.
Much disappointed at this, I now proposed to make for the track
we came by in the morning, and follow it down into camp; but this
luxury was not destined to be our lot that night, for the rain
had obliterated all our footprints of the morning, and we passed
the track, mistaking it for the run of wild beasts. It struck me
we had done so; but say what I would, the boys thought they knew
better; and the consequence was that, after wandering for hours
no one knew where - for there was no sun to guide us - I pulled up,
and swore I would wait for the stars, else it might be our fate
to be lost in the wilderness, which I did not much relish. We
were all at this time "hungry as hunters," and beginning to feel
very miserable from being wet through. What little ammunition I
had left I fired off as signals, or made tinder of to get up a
fire, but the wood would not burn. In this hapless condition the
black boys began murmuring, wishing to go on, pretending, though
both held opposite views, that each knew the way; for they
thought nothing could be worse than their present state of
discomfort.
Night with its gloom was then drawing on, heightened by thunder
and lightning, which set in all around us. At times we thought
we heard musketry in camp, knowing that Grant would be sure to
fire signals for us; and doubtless we did so, but its sound and
the thunder so much resembled one another that we distrusted our
ears. At any rate, the boys mistook the west for the east; and
as I thought they had done so, I stood firm to one spot, and
finally lay down with them to sleep upon the cold wet ground,
where we slept pretty well, being only disturbed occasionally by
some animals sniffing at our feet. As the clouds broke towards
morning, my obstinate boys still swore that west was east, and
would hardly follow me when tracking down Venus; next up rose the
moon and then followed the sun, when, as good luck would have it,
we struck on the track, and walked straight into camp.
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