slowly turned his head and looked into my eyes, 

 and I felt keenly the sense of hopeless inferiority. 

 " There it is, what are you going to do ? " was 

 what the first look seemed to say ; and the second : 

 " Well, what are you waiting for ? " 



How long we stood thus it is not possible to say : 

 time is no measure of such things, and to me it seemed 

 unending suspense ; but we stood our ground scarcely 

 breathing, knowing that something was there, because 

 he saw it and told us so, and knowing that as soon as 

 we moved it would be gone. Then close to the ground 

 there was a movement something swung, and the 

 full picture flashed upon us. It was a buffalo calf 

 standing in the shade of a big bush with its back towards 

 us, and it was the swishing of the tail that had betrayed 

 it. We dared not breathe a word or pass a look 

 a face turned might have caught some glint of light 

 and shown us up ; so we stood like statues each know- 

 ing that the other was looking for the herd and would 

 fire when he got a chance at one of the full-grown 

 animals. 



My eyes were strained and burning from the in- 

 tensity of the effort to see ; but except the calf I 

 could not make out a living thing : the glare of the 

 yellow grass in which we stood, and the sun-splotched 

 darkness beyond it beat me. 



At last, in the corner of my eye, I saw Francis's v 

 rifle rise, as slowly almost as the mercury in 

 a warmed thermometer. There was a long pause, If/ 

 and then came the shot and wild snorts of alarm if 

 and rage. A dozen huge black forms started 

 281 



