Not for some
minutes not, indeed, until Mr. Farquhar, whose
post was close by, shouted at them and cheered
them on did they at all recover themselves. Then
when at last they did begin to fire, they fired with a
vengeance anywhere, anyhow. Whitehead andI
were at right angles to the direction in which they
should have shot, and yet their bullets came whizzing
all round us. Altogether they fired over a score of
shots, and in the end succeeded only in blowing
away one of the bars of the door, thus allowing our
prize to make good his escape. How they failed to
kill him several times over is, and always will be, a
complete mystery to me, as they could have put the
muzzles of their rifles absolutely touching his body.
There was, indeed, some blood scattered about the
trap, but it was small consolation to know that the
brute, whose capture and death seemed so certain,
had only been slightly wounded.

Chapter 7