A HARD BIT OF GOING 165

were that we might be just as far off our quarry as we
were when we started, even if we ever laid eyes on them
again. The idea did not altogether appeal to the Colonel,
who said, ‘‘ Why, we never could get there and back
to-night.’’ Just then one of the bulls lay down and the
others followed suit almost immediately. There was
every probability now that they would stop where they
were for an hour or so.

‘‘ Come on, Colonel,”’ said I, “we are going to get them,
even if we have to stay out to-night and the night after ;
you will never get a chance at a bull like that again in
your life. Give me your rifle, as we are going to run
every bit of down-hill grade.”

It is probable the Colonel will remember that little
marathon for many years. But he was pretty hardened
up by then and stuck to it well. We ran and walked and
climbed, down hill and up dale, through masses of ‘‘ buck
brush”? and balsam, along rocky gulleys, over grassy
slopes, up the sides of rough gulches, until our lungs were
simply craving for fresh air and our legs so tired that
further movement seemed impossible. At last, when the
final climb was almost accomplished and all we had to
do was make an easy ascent of the last hill so that we
could come down on to the right spot, we all three sank
gasping to the ground and lay there to recuperate
preparatory to the final stalk. In all our minds was the
question, ‘‘ Would they still be there ?”? We had not
had a chance to lay eyes on them since we started.

Of the last part of the stalk there is but little to relate.
It was all easy going, with enough undulating ground for
us to creep down to within seventy-five yards of where
we had last seen the bulls, but until we reached the spot
I had picked to shoot from we did not know whether
they were still there. You can therefore imagine my joy
when, on raising my head to look, there before me were the
three bulls, exactly where we had last seen them more
than two hours before.

I am not going to give you an account of how the
Colonel slew his two bulls, but, when the battle was over,

eerie - - — - —— ——