plain, going straight from him, he gave him the
second barrel, and hit him high up on the last rib on the off side, in
front of the hip. He threw up his tail, made a tremendous bound in the
air, dashed through bush-thorns so dense and close that it seemed
perfectly marvellous how he managed it, and fell dead within two hundred
yards.

Note. If the reader should desire fuller accounts of such battles, we
recommend to him _African Hunting_, a very interesting work, by W.C.
Baldwin, Esquire, to whom, with Dr Livingstone, Du Chaillu, and others,
I am indebted for most of the information contained in this volume,--
R.M.B.

The moment it fell the natives descended from the different trees in
which they had taken refuge at the commencement of the fray, and were
lavish in their compliments; but Tom, who felt that he had been deserted
in the hour of need, did not receive these very graciously, and there is
no saying how far he might have proceeded in rebuking his followers (for
the Brown family is pugnacious under provocation) had not the major's
voice been heard in the distance, shouting, "Hallo! look out! a buffalo!
where are you, Tom Brown, Wilkins?"

"Hallo!" he added, bursting suddenly into the open where they were
standing, "what's this--a--buffalo? dead! Have 'ee killed him? why, I
saw him alive not two minutes--"

His speech was cut short by a loud roar, as the buffalo he had been in
chase of, scared by the approach of Wilkins, burst through the underwood
and charged down on the whole party. They fled right and left, but as
the brute passed, Wilkins, from the other side of the open, fired at it
and put a ball in just behind the shoulder-blade. It did not fall,
however, and the three hunters ran after it at full speed, Wilkins
leading, Tom Brown next, and the major last. The natives kept well out
of harm's way on either side; not that they were unusually timid
fellows, but they probably felt that where such able hands were at work
it was unnecessary for them to interfere!

As the major went racing clumsily along--for he was what may be called
an ill-jointed man, nevertheless as bold as a lion and a capital shot--
he heard a clatter of hoofs behind him, and, looking over his shoulder,
observed another buffalo in full career behind. He stopped instantly,
took quick aim at the animal's breast, and fired, but apparently without
effect. There chanced to be a forked tree close at hand, to which the
major rushed a