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.
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