THE ROAN. 



Before we started I remarked that I was offer- 

 ing two rupees for the capture of a roan. 



We had not gone ten minutes when Kongoni 

 turned his head cautiously and grinned back at us. 



" My rupees," said he. 



A fine buck roan stood motionless beneath a 

 tree in the valley below us. He was on the 

 other side of the stream jungle, and nearly a mile 

 away. While we watched him, he lay down. 



Our task now was to gain the shelter of the 

 stream jungle below without being seen, to slip 

 along it until opposite the roan, and then to 

 penetrate the jungle near enough to get a shot. 

 The first part of this contract seemed to us 

 the most difficult, for we were forced to descend 

 the face of the hill, like flies crawling down a 

 blackboard, plain for him to see. 



We slid cautiously from bush to bush ; we 

 moved by imperceptible inches across the numer- 

 ous open spaces. About half-way down we were 

 arrested by a violent snort ahead. Fifteen or 

 twenty zebras nooning in the brush where no 

 zebras were supposed to be, clattered down the 

 hill like an avalanche. We froze where we were. 

 The beasts ran fifty yards, then wheeled, and 

 started back up the hill, trying to make us out. 



For twenty minutes all parties to the transac- 



13 a 



