MY SOMALI BOOK 55 



kept on gamely on his three legs, but at length he fell 

 out to one side and lay down. It was wonderful how 

 he had stood the pace so long. I dismounted and gave 

 him the cou2>de-grdce, then waited for Elmi to come 

 up with the mule. When he arrived I thought I would 

 photograph him skinning the buck and went to take 

 my kodak from the saddle. But Brian suddenly broke 

 away and strolled off, the mule after him, and stop 

 they would not. As I followed I noticed three aotcl, 

 that had not gone off with the main herd, standing 

 watching not far off. One of them struck me as having 

 a particularly good head, so I left the steeds to their 

 own devices and presently had a shot at the big buck. 

 Miss again ! a second shot was a misfire, which did 

 not improve matters ; the buck moved on a bit but 

 soon stood again. Once more I got to within 200 

 — perhaps 170 yards — sat down and took a steady 

 " pot shot " behind the shoulder with my usual sighting, 

 taking particular care that the sights were upright, 

 as I thought I might possibly have sinned in that 

 respect before. I saw the bullet strike the ground 

 some four feet short and a little to the right of his 

 hind legs I I had begun to suspect that the hand and 

 eye behind the gun were not altogether to blame for 

 my erratic shooting : that shot to my mind proved 

 it conclusivel}^ I put in a cartridge from a fresh 

 clip, fired again with the same aim and sighting as 

 before, and the buck bounded forward and fell on 

 his head, shot through the heart. Why ? I'd have 

 sworn the previous shot was equally steady and the 

 aim as accurate. It seemed obvious that there was 

 something wrong with some of the cartridges. 



