bell an* curtain in this yere play ; you got ter be thar 

 waitin'." 



Rocky knew better than I did the extent of his 

 good nature ; he knew that in all probability it meant 

 a wasted day ; for, with the best will in the world, 

 the beginner is almost certain to spoil sport. It 

 looks so simple and easy when you have only read 

 about it or heard others talk ; but there are pit- 

 falls at every step. When, in what seemed to me 

 perfectly still air, Rocky took a pinch of dust and let 

 it drop, and afterwards wet one finger and held it 

 up to feel which side cooled, it was not difficult to 

 know that he was trying the wind ; but when he 

 changed direction suddenly for no apparent reason, 

 or when he stopped and, after a glance at the ground, 

 slackened his frame, lost all interest in sport, wind 

 and surroundings, and addressed a remark to me in 

 ordinary tones, I was hopelessly at sea. His manner 

 showed that some possibility was disposed of and some 

 idea abandoned. Once he said " Rietbuck ! Heard 

 us I reckon," and then turned off at a right-angle ; 

 but a little later on he pointed to other spoor and, 

 indifferently dropping the one word ' Koodoo,' con- 

 tinued straight on. To me the two spoors seemed 

 equally fresh ; he saw hours' perhaps a whole day's 

 difference between them. That the rietbuck, scared 

 by us, had gone ahead and was keenly on the watch for 

 us and therefore not worth following, and that the 

 koodoo was on the move and had simply struck across 

 our line and was therefore not to be overtaken, were 

 conclusions he drew without hesitation. I only saw 



33 c 



