THE LESSER KUDU. 255 



with a single transverse white stripe. There was 

 no chance to ascertain the sex of the beast, nor 

 what part of its anatomy was thus exposed. I 

 took a bull's eye chance on that patch of gray ; 

 had the luck to hit it in the middle. The animal 

 went down. Memba Sasa leapt forward like a 

 madman ; I could not begin to keep pace with 

 him. When I had struggled through the thorn, 

 I found him dancing with delight. 



" Monuome, bwana ! buck, master ! " he cried 

 as soon as he saw me, and made a spiral gesture 

 in imitation of the male's beautiful corkscrew 

 horns. 



While the men prepared the trophy, F. and I 

 followed on after the other four to see what they 

 would do, and speedily came to the conclusion 

 that we were lucky to land two of the wily 

 beasts. The four ran compactly together and 

 in a wide curve for several hundred yards. Then 

 two faced directly back, while the other two, one 

 on either side, made a short detour out and back 

 to guard the flanks. 



We did not get back to camp until after dark. 

 A tremendous pair of electric storms were volley- 

 ing and roaring at each other across the space of 

 night ; leopards were crying ; a pack of wild dogs 

 were barking vociferously. The camp, as we 



