MY SOMALI BOOK 63 



The following morning H. accompanied me with 

 half a dozen men behind to try a drive as a last resource 

 if necessary. I seemed to be in luck, for after half 

 an hour we came across a bull with fair head who 

 stopped to look at us from behind a bush some eighty 

 yards away. I could see nothing but the tips of his 

 horns, but risked a shot at where I thought his shoulder 

 ought to be. However, his shoulder was not there, or 

 my bullet was turned by a branch, and he bounded 

 away untouched. 



Then, as a last resort, we sent the men round to 

 try a beat from the direction in which he had gone. 

 I looked for a good tree, and climbed up, only to beat 

 a hasty retreat, ingloriously driven out by a colony of 

 vicious red ants. The white ants were less disobliging 

 and presently one of their lofty edifices provided me 

 with a fairly secure perch and a good view, with H. 

 lower down, relieving me of the look-out on one 

 side. 



After half an hour the beat began, and presently 

 the cries told us that there were kudu afoot. At 

 length H. was the first to see a bull approaching on the 

 left quietly enough. He carried a fair head, and I 

 fired as he passed sixty yards away ; at the shot he 

 staggered and gave a bound, then walked, in rather 

 dazed fashion, towards me, not knowing whence the 

 sudden shock had come. He stood at about forty 

 yards with his head up, and a bullet in the throat 

 brought him down. 



The head was a fair one though hardly good, rather 

 smaller than the one I had missed, and which H.'s 

 shikari said had broken back in the drive. H. had 



