that the pig
might charge again, and I kept my rifle ready, but the animal was
"all in." I circled warily and, creeping up from behind, drove my
hunting knife into its heart; even then it struggled to get at me
before it rolled over dead.

Smith was streaming blood from a score of scratches, and his clothes
were in ribbons, but his face was radiant. "I'd have chased the
blasted pig clear to Peking," he said. "All my shells are gone, but
I wasn't going to let him get away. If I hadn't kept that last
cartridge he'd have caught me, surely."

It was fine enthusiasm and, if ever a man deserved his game, Smith
deserved that sow. The animal had been shot in half a dozen places;
two legs were broken, and at least three of the bullets had reached
vital spots.

Still the brute kept on. Any one who thinks pigs are easy to kill
ought to try the ones in Shansi! The sow weighed well over three
hundred pounds, and it required six men to carry the two pigs into
camp. We got no more, although we saw two others, but still we felt
that the day had not been ill spent. As long as I live I shall never
forget Smith's hurdle race after that old sow.

Although I killed two roebuck, the next day I returned to camp with
rage in my heart. Smith and I had separated late in the afternoon,
and I was hunting with an old Chinese when we discovered three
pigs--a huge boar, a sow, and a shote--crossing an open hill. Crawling
on my face, I reached a rock not seventy yards from the animals. At
the first shot the boar pitched over the bluff into a tangle of
thorns, squealing wildly. My second bullet broke the shoulder of the
sow, and I had a mad chase through a patch of scrub, but finally lost
her.

When I returned to get the big boar I discovered my Chinese squatted
on his haunches in the ravine. He blandly informed me that the pig
could not be found. I spent the half hour of remaining daylight
burrowing in the thorn scrub without success. I learned later that
the native had concealed the dead pig under a mass of stones and
that during the night he and his _confreres_ had carried it away.
Moreover, after we left, they also got the sow which I had wounded.
Although at the time I did not suspect the man's perfidy,
nevertheless it was apparent that he had not kept his eyes on the
boar as I had told him to do; otherwise the pig could not possibly
have escaped.

We had one more day of hunting because Smith had obtained two weeks'
leave. The next morni