to him. He lay down beside me and raised his head to 

 look just as he saw me do. He was all excitement, 

 trembling like a wet spaniel on a^cold day, and instead 

 of looking steadily at the impala as I was doing and as he 

 usually did, he was looking here there and everywhere ; 

 it seemed almost as if he was looking at things not 

 for them. It was my comfortable belief at the moment 

 that he had not yet spotted the buck, but was looking 

 about anxiously to find out what was interesting me. 

 It turned out, as usual, that he had seen a great deal 

 more than his master had. 



The stalking looked very easy, as a few yards further 

 up the donga there was excellent cover in some dense 

 thorns, behind which we could walk boldly across open 

 ground to within easy range of the buck and get a 

 clear shot. We reached the cover all right, but I had 

 not taken three steps into the open space beyond 

 before there was a rushing and scrambling on every 

 side of me. The place was a whirlpool of racing and 

 plunging impala ; they came from every side and went 

 in every direction as though caught suddenly in an 

 enclosure and, mad with fear and bewilderment, were 

 trying to find a way out. How many there were it 

 was quite impossible to say : the bush was alive with 

 them ; and the dust they kicked up, the noise of their 

 feet, their curious sneezy snorts, and their wild con- 

 fusion completely bewildered me. Not one stood 

 still. Never for a moment could I see any single 

 animal clearly enough or long enough to fire at it ; 

 another would cross it ; a bush would cover it as I 

 aimed ; or it would leap into the air, clearing bushes, 



1 60 



