It sounds easy enough to gallop up to an animal which you can beat for pace, but anyone who has ever tried to lay a whip on the back of a bullock knows it is not so easy as it looks to get more than one or two clips home.

Hugh found the buffalo holding its own for pace, and every time he drew up it dodged before he could make sure of hitting the loin.

Cover seemed to be getting very near.

At last he leaned out as far as he could, held the rifle in one hand, and took a "speculator" at the flying buffalo.

He hit it somewhere, but hadn't time to see where; for, with a snort like a grampus, the beast wheeled in its tracks and charged so suddenly that old Close Up only just dodged it by a yard or two.