to stop and pick it up. I rushed into the
shallow water, thinking that it would be better to attack him there than
on dry land. Had I known that his feet were especially formed to tread
on marshy places, spreading out as they are placed on the ground, and
contracting as they are lifted up, I should have kept on the shore. At
about twenty paces off I fired. The smoke cleared away. There he
stood, unhurt it seemed, but eyeing me viciously, then slowly and
steadily he advanced like a cat about to spring on its prey. Yes, there
was a wound, and a stream of blood flowed from it. Had I retreated he
would have made a rush. I knew that--I should have been crushed in an
instant. I had still a barrel loaded. Again I fired, and eagerly I
watched for the result. The fierce animal stood still without moving a
muscle, his eye flashing with fury. I was in no better position than
before, and he was within a dozen paces of me. My only chance of safety
consisted in my being able to load and fire a more successful shot
before he was upon me. I brought my rifle down ready to load--I put in
the powder--I felt for my shot bag--I could not find it. Again and
again, with a sinking heart, I felt about for it--in vain; I had lost
it. What hope had I of escape? I kept plunging my hands convulsively
into my pockets. My fingers came upon some stones. I remembered to
have picked them up some days before at Neura-Ellia. They had been
washed down from the mountains above, and were really jewels of some
little value--precious, indeed, I thought them. They had been wrapped
up in paper. Grasping them all, I rolled them up with a pen-knife and
pencil-case, and some small coin, and rammed them all down into the two
barrels together--a regular charge of langrage. I knew that none of
this was likely to go through his skull, and I feared that my gun might
burst, but it was my only chance. If it failed--the full horror of my
situation flashed across me. How I blamed myself for having engaged in
the useless, I might say senseless and cruel sport. I knew that Nowell
must be a long way off, but I hoped that he might hear my voice, so I
shouted as shrilly as I could at the very top of it. Scarcely had I
done so, than the buffalo, feeling the pain of his wounds, with a loud
grunt rushed on towards me. I fired both barrels in quick succession
right into his head. Without stopping to see the effect produced, or
till the smoke had cleared aw