about the way and to look about from side to side 

 for reminders. 



The start back had been easy enough : that part 

 of the ground where we had lost the spoor had been 

 gone over very thoroughly and every object was 

 familiar ; but further back, where we had followed the 

 spoor at a trot for long stretches and I had hardly 

 raised my eyes from the ground before me, it was a 

 very different matter. I forgot all about those long 

 stretches in which nothing had been noticed except the 

 koodoo spoor, and was unconsciously looking out for 

 things in regular succession which we had passed at 

 quite long intervals. Of course, they were not to be 

 found, but I kept on looking out for them first feeling 

 annoyed, then puzzled, then worried. Something 

 had gone wrong, and we were not going back on our 

 old tracks. Several times I looked about for the 

 koodoo spoor as a guide ; but it might be anywhere 

 over a width of a hundred yards, and it seemed waste 

 of precious time to search the dry grass-grown and 

 leaf-strewn ground for that. 



At the first puzzled stop I tried to recall some of 

 the more noticeable things we had passed during the 

 chase. There were two flat-topped mimosas, looking 

 like great rustic tables on a lawn, and we had passed 

 between them ; there was a large ant-heap, with a 

 twisty top like a crooked mud chimney, behind which 

 the koodoo bull had calmly stood watching us approach; 

 then a marula tree with a fork like a giant catapult 

 stick ; and so on with a score of other things, all 

 coming readily to mind. 



138 



