dust and leaves marked his course, and through 

 it I fired, unsteadied by excitement and hardly 

 able to see. Then the right hind-leg swung out 

 and the great creature sank for a moment, almost 

 to the ground ; and the sense of triumph, the 

 longed for and unexpected success, * went to my 

 head ' like a rush of blood. 



There had been no time to aim, and the shot a 

 real snap shot was not at all a bad one. It was 

 after that that the natural effect of such a meeting 

 and such a chance began to tell. Thinking it all out 

 beforehand does not help much, for things never 

 happen as they are expected to ; and even months 

 of practice among the smaller kinds will not ensure 

 a steady nerve when you just come face to face with 

 big game there seems to be too much at stake. 



I fired again as the koodoo recovered himself, but 

 he was then seventy or eighty yards away and partly 

 hidden at times by trees and scrub. He struck up 

 the slope, following the line of the troop through 

 the scattered thorns, and there, running hard and 

 dropping quickly to my knee for steadier aim, I fired 

 again and again but each time a longer shot and 

 more obscured by the intervening bush ; and no tell- 

 tale thud came back to cheer me on. 



Forgetting the last night's experience, forgetting 

 everything except how we had twice chased and twice 

 lost them, seeing only another and the grandest prize 

 slipping away, I sent Jock on and followed as fast as 

 I could. Once more the koodoo came in sight just 

 a chance at four hundred yards as he reached an open 

 183 



