THE ROAN. 395 



ourselves for a look. Through the glass I could 

 just make out the roan's face stripe. He was 

 still there ! 



Quite encouraged, I instantly dropped down 

 and crawled to within range. When again I 

 raised my head the roan had disappeared. One 

 of these aggravating little side puffs of breeze 

 had destroyed our two hours' work. 



The outlook was not particularly encouraging. 

 We had no means of telling how far the animal 

 would go, nor into what sort of country ; and 

 the hour was well advanced toward sunset. How- 

 ever, we took up the track, and proceeded to fol- 

 low it as well as we could. That was not easy, 

 for the ground was hard and stony. Suddenly 

 C. threw himself flat. Of course we followed his 

 example. To us he whispered that he thought 

 he had caught a glimpse of the animal through 

 an opening and across the stream bed. We 

 stalked carefully, and found ourselves in the 

 middle of a small herd of topis, one of which, 

 half concealed in the brush, had deceived C. 

 This consumed valuable time. When again we 

 had picked up the spoor, it was agreed that I 

 was to still-hunt ahead as rapidly as I could, 

 while C. and Kongoni would puzzle out the 

 tracks as far as possible before dark. 



