5o LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



afterwards inclined my course slightly to the 

 left, proceeding in a curve. The curve became 

 a spiral ; I walked round and round the patch 

 of scrub, gradually edging nearer. 



To look towards the jackal would have been 

 to give myself away absolutely. My game was 

 to pretend to be unaware that such a thing as a 

 jackal existed in Bushmanland. However, out 

 of the tail of my left eye I could just see the 

 pointed ears still erect; it was clear that the 

 owner of those ears was following my move- 

 ments with careful but perplexed attention. 

 Was it possible that that villain, with all his 

 cunning, could have really believed that I was 

 taking just an ordinary stroll? The fact was, 

 — he found himself face to face with a wholly 

 unprecedented situation. 



Of course I recognised that all my trouble 

 might be for nothing; that the jackal perhaps 

 was sitting at the side of a convenient burrow, 

 ready to drop out of sight at my first suspicious 

 gesture. But, on the other hand, were no 

 burrow available, my cunning friend's 

 moments were drawing to a tragic close, — 

 his last springbuck fawn had been devoured, 

 his last smashing of ostrich-eggs perpetrated. 



I was now within sixty yards of the jackal; 

 still there was no movement on his part, — 



