64 LARGE GAME. chap. i. 



his return to camp, it was so hard hit that its escape was 

 only owing to his fearing to follow it up in the rapidly- 

 increasing darkness, and, as he expressed himself certain 

 that his bullet had struck about the shoulder, and that 

 the animal was lame, we concluded that he had broken 

 that Hmb, and that it woidd be in consequence incapable 

 of going far, and therefore decided to go after it and finish 

 it off next morning before separating for the day's hunting. 

 The spoor was soon found ; and as we fully expected to 

 discover the brute close by, we followed it with great 

 caution through the denser thickets, until, its lair of the 

 previous night having been passed, and on seeing that the 

 track — now of the early morning — ^led out into the open, 

 where, despite the shelter of a few thom-trees, it could 

 not well conceal itself, we pressed forward as rapidly as 

 possible. The ground was hard and the grass short, ren- 

 dering spooring so difficidt that before long our party 

 was considerably scattered, many of us doubting whether 

 the marks which the others were still slowly deciphering 

 were indeed those of the buffalo of which we were in 

 search, as we fancied that it was too severely wounded to 

 have left the coverts. 



Just at this moment a thorn a couple of inches long, 

 hundreds of which covered the ground, ran into the sole 

 of my foot, through a weak spot in my shoe, and as I 

 staggered about on one leg trying to pull it out without 

 leaving the point in, I heard a volley to my right, and on 

 looking up, saw a buffalo running across me about two 

 hundred yards off. Out came the thorn, without the 

 point of course, and away I went as hard as I could race 

 after it. There was a hunter and two boys further to the 



