170 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



yards; I was easily holding their wind and 

 could have closed with them whenever I liked. 

 But, disregarding Andries' oft-repeated ad- 

 vice, I yielded to temptation. After gaining 

 another hundred yards I rolled from my horse 

 and opened fire. It seemed impossible to miss 

 such a mark, but my first wind had gone and 

 the second had not yet taken its place. My 

 bullets went all over the veld, every shot 

 missed. 



As I remounted, with shame and sorrow in 

 my heart, I heard a shot from the other side of 

 the herd; it was followed by a thud. Then a 

 bull turned out of the press; it faltered, stag- 

 gered and fell. Once more I let Prince out 

 at his best gallop, keeping his nose on the flank' 

 of the phalanx. I had, through my foolish im- 

 patience, largely lost my advantage; now my 

 only chance of a favourable shot was to ride 

 for all I was worth, strenuously pressing the 

 leaders of the herd away from the wind. 



The herd was then about nine hundred 

 yards away. All I could do was to continue 

 the pressure, so as to defer the now inevitable 

 stern chase for as long as possible. I was just 

 barely holding my own, but that was good 

 enough for the current stage. The oryx did 

 not as yet venture to turn up wind; they well 



