siveness which anything with blood and brain should 

 have shrunk under. The dull monotone, the ominous 

 drawl, the steady something in his clear calm eyes 3 

 which I cannot define, gave an almost corrosive effect 

 to innocent words and a voice of lazy gentleness. 



" What's the best thing to do following up a 

 wounded buffalo ? " was the question. The questions 

 sprung briskly, as only a ' yapper ' puts them ; and 

 the answers came like reluctant drops from a filter. 



" Git out ! " 



" Yes, but if there isn't time ? " 



" Say yer prayers ! " 



" No seriously what is the best way of tackling 

 one ? " 



" Ef yer wawnt to know, thar's only one way : 

 Keep cool and shoot straight ! " 



" Oh ! of course if you can ? " 



" An' ef you can't," he added in fool-killer tones, 

 " best stay right home ! " 



Rocky had no fancy notions : he hunted for meat 

 and got it as soon as possible; he was seldom out long, 

 and rarely indeed came back empty-handed. I had 

 already learnt not to be too ready with questions. 

 It was better, so Rocky put it, " to keep yer eyes open 

 and yer mouth shut " ; but the results at first hardly 

 seemed to justify the process. At the end of a week 

 of failures and disappointments all I knew was that 

 I knew nothing a very notable advance it is true, 

 but one quite difficult to appreciate ! Thus it came 

 to me in the light of a distinction when one evening, 

 after a rueful confession of blundering made to the 



3 1 



