come back of his own accord, and there was something 

 quite peculiar in his look when he returned from these 

 wild-goose chases that seemed to say, " No good : you 

 were quite wrong. You missed the whole lot of them." 

 He would come up to me with his mouth wide open 

 and tongue out, a bit blown, and stand still with his front 

 legs wide apart, looking up at me with that nothing- 

 in-it sort of look in his eyes and not a movement in 

 his ears or tail and never a turn of his head to show 

 the least interest in anything else. I got to know that 

 look quite well; and to me it meant, "Well, that job 

 was a failure finished and done for. Now is there 

 anything else you can think of ? " 



What always seemed to me so curious and full of 

 meaning was that he never once looked back in the 

 direction of the unwounded game, but seemed to 

 put them out of his mind altogether as of no further 

 interest. It was very different when he got on to the 

 trail of a wounded buck and I had to call him off, as 

 was sometimes necessary when the chase looked hope- 

 less or it was too late to go further. He would obey, 

 of course no amount of excitement made him forget 

 that ; but he would follow me in a sort of sideways 

 trot, looking back over his shoulder all the time, and 

 whenever there was a stop, turning right round and 

 staring intently in the direction of the game with 

 his little tail moving steadily from side to side and his 

 hind legs crouched as if ready to spring off the instant 

 he got permission. 



Twice I thought he was lost for ever through 

 following wounded game. The first occasion was also 



156 



