heard in the distance told me that the others were on 

 to the koodoo, and knowing the preference of those 

 animals for the bush I took cover behind a big stump 

 and waited. For over half an hour, however, nothing 

 came towards me, and believing then that the game 

 had broken off another way, I was about to return to 

 camp when I heard the tapping of galloping feet a long 

 way off. In a few minutes the hard thud and occa- 

 sional ring on the ground told that it was not the koo- 

 doo ; and soon afterwards I saw a man on horseback. ' 

 He was leaning eagerly forward and thumping the 

 exhausted horse with his rifle and his heels to keep up 

 its staggering gallop. I looked about quickly to see 

 what it was he was chasing that could have slipped 

 past me unnoticed, but there was nothing ; then 

 thinking there had been an accident and he was coming 

 for help, I stepped out into the open and waited for 

 him to come up. I stood quite still, and he galloped 

 past within ten yards of me so close that his muttered 

 " Get on, you brute ; get on, get on ! " as he thumped 

 away at his poor tired horse, were perfectly audible. 



" What's up, sportsman ? " I asked, no louder than 

 you would say it across a tennis-court ; but the words 

 brought him up, white-faced and terrified, and he 

 half slid, half tumbled, off the horse gasping out, 

 " I was lost, I was lost ! " How he had managed to 

 keep within that strip of bush, without once getting into 

 the open where he would have seen the line of kopjes to 

 which I had told him to stick or could have 

 seen the waggons and the smoke of the big j 

 camp-fire, he could never explain. I turnedl 

 125 



