An Awkward Surprise 



glorious animal with an enormous head, and the 

 temptation was strong upon me as I scanned him 

 through my glasses. Here was a prize specimen 

 for which men would have travelled hundreds of 

 miles, and yet my hand was stayed. As if they 

 were aware of the edict, they journeyed parallel 

 with me for about half a mile, offering tantalizing 

 shots, so that eventually I had to turn my gaze in 

 the opposite direction, as I did not feel sure of 

 myself. 



The next thing I saw was a bush buck, but 

 he got up suddenly and was away before I could 

 cover him. Then we went through some even 

 thicker grass intermixed with many thorns. We 

 searched each thicket thoroughly. There were 

 numerous elephant tracks everywhere, showing that 

 large herds had been in the vicinity. We were 

 getting very careless in our search, relying on spot- 

 ting tracks before danger. My hunter suggested 

 we might have a nasty surprise, and shortly after- 

 wards one actually occurred. We worked our way 

 across a valley of thick sand, and came to a very 

 likely-looking spot. I sent a hunter and an orderly 

 one way, whilst I went the other. We walked 

 round the exterior edge, but could see nothing, 

 when suddenly my hunter grew very excited, and 

 the next minute we came to the tracks of a big bull. 

 I had then a lurking suspicion that our friend was 

 in the thicket; but as we had marched all round, it 

 seemed hardly probable that he should have laid 

 "doggo" all the time. 



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