with dappled shade and light the already mottled 

 h surface of earth and grass. I was hopelessly beaten, 

 but Jock could see him well enough ; he crouched 

 beside me with ears cocked, and his eyes, all ablaze, 

 were fixed intently on the spot, except for an occa- 

 sional swift look up to me to see what on earth was 

 wrong and why the shot did not come ; his hind-legs 

 were tucked under him and he was trembling with 

 excitement. Only those will realise it who have been 

 through the tantalising humiliating experience. There 

 was nothing to be done but wait, leaving the buck to 

 make the first move. 



And at last it came : there was another slight shake 

 of the horns, and the whole figure stood out in 

 bold relief. It was a fine sable bull lying in the 

 shadow of one of the thorn-trees with his back 

 towards us, and there was a small ant-heap close 

 behind him, making a greyish blot against his 

 black back and shoulder, and breaking the expanse 

 of colour which the eye would otherwise easily have 

 picked up. 



The ant-heap made a certain shot impossible, so I 

 lowered myself slowly to the ground to wait until he 

 should begin feeding or change his position for comfort 

 or shade, as they often do : this might mean waiting 

 for half an hour or more, but it was better than risking 

 a shot in the position in which he was lying. I settled 

 down for a long wait with the rifle resting on my 

 knees, confidently expecting that when the time came 



to move he would get up 



slowly, stretch himself, 



436 



