took a steady aim, resting the barrel on a lump
of rock--I fired. Roaring with fury, he bounded along towards the rock.
I thought he would almost have reached us. Suddenly he stopped--down
went his head, and over he rolled close under the rock, and there he lay
stone dead! We both of us simultaneously raised a loud shout of
victory; but, as Jerry remarked, we began to crow rather too soon, for
the other six bulls, no way daunted at the fall of their leader,
continued raging round about us as furiously as ever. We had only one
bullet left, and with that we could scarcely hope even to settle one of
them. We sat ourselves down watching our enemies, hoping that they
would grow tired of waiting for us and go away; but they seemed by no
means disposed to move. Never did a beleaguering army watch more
pertinaciously round a hard pressed garrison than did our formidable
enemies watch to toss us in the air. In vain we stood up and looked
around on every side for our friends, as far as our somewhat limited
range of vision extended. There was not a sign of them. They, too,
would have become not a little anxious about us, except Cousin Silas
thought we were still with Mr Kilby, and the latter gentleman supposed
we had joined our other friends. If so, unless they met they would
probably not come to look for us. As we had taken but a light luncheon,
we began to feel very hungry, and to cast longing glances at our
satchels and the teal, which lay at some distance from the rock, but
which we dared not attempt to got. Not ten feet below where we sat was
the bull. Jerry looked over the rock--

"I should so like to have a juicy beef-steak out of you, old fellow!"
said he, addressing the dead animal. "I say, Harry, don't you think we
could manage to get it? The other brutes will certainly grow hungry
before long; and, as they don't want to eat us, while they are picking
up their dinners I shall have plenty of time to get down and cut out a
few slices. I have my knife, and I sharpened it only yesterday."

I had mine also; and, as I highly approved of his suggestion, we
resolved to wait a favourable opportunity for our exploit. Raw meat was
not, however, to our taste; so we agreed to try and light a fire and
cook our steaks. There was plenty of dry moss and grass on the rock, so
we set to work and collected all that we could find, so that we soon had
a famous heap of it, sufficient almost to roast the whole animal. As we