hear only
the bullet that has first struck some object and then glanced on, catching the air, and whizzing like a bee at your ear, but almost quite as harmless. These you can hear distinctly a hundred yards away, and they sound very ugly ; but a round, unmarred pistol ball can pass within six inches of your head and hardly be heard. You not only do not hear a ball strike your body, but you scarcely feel it at first, though you can hear it strike a man at your side ; and the sound is dead, dull, suggestive and almost sickening.
I began to think I had escaped without a scratch ; but after climbing up the hill till quite out of reach, and turning to look below, I raised my disabled right arm, and found my hand and fingers streaming with blood.
I was still strong and resolute; and, observing some men coming slowly up the hill with a show of pursuit, I hurried to the top of the hill, sat down there and examined my wound. A ball had torn across the back of the wrist and cut a vein or artery there, but done no further damage whatever.
I was wearing a linen shirt, for I always dressed as nearly like the white men as I could when amongst them, and from this I tore a strip and bound up the damaged wrist. But it still bled dreadfully, and I sat down often, as I retreated still further into the forest, and up and over the hills, and bound the wound as best I could, and tightened the bandages. The weather was intensely hot, and my blood was boiling from excitement and exertion. T
