see him slow down and stand with his nose thrown 

 up, giving quick soft sniffs and ranging his head from 

 side to side, when he knew there was something quite 

 close, and knew too that a few more toiling steps in 

 that rank grass would be followed by a rush of some- 

 thing which we would never see. 



Once we heard a foot stamp not twenty yards off, 

 and stood for a couple of minutes on tip-toe trying to 

 pierce the screen of grass in front, absolutely certain 

 that eyes and ears were turned on us in death-like 

 silence waiting for the last little proof of the intruder 

 that would satisfy their owners and start them off 

 before we could get a glimpse. The silence must have 

 made them suspicious, for at some signal unknown 

 to us the troop broke away and we had the mortifica- 

 tion to see something, which we had ignored as a branch, 

 tilt slowly back and disappear : there was no mistaking 

 the koodoo bull's horns once they moved ! 



After two hours of this we struck a stream, and 

 there we made somewhat better pace and less noise, 

 often taking to the bed of the creek for easier going. 

 There, too, we found plenty of drinking places and 

 plenty of fresh spoor of the bigger game, and as the 

 hills began to rise in view above the bush and trees, 

 we found what Francis was looking for. Something 

 caught his eye on the far side of the stream, and he 

 waded in. I followed and when half way through 

 saw the contented look on his face and caught his 

 words : " Buffalo ! I thought so ! " 



We sat down then to think it out. The spoor told 

 of a troop of a dozen to sixteen animals bulls, cows, 

 277 



