THE N ARE ADA VALLEY. 67 



rally run some fifty yards and then fall dead, and I 

 much prefer to see an antelope go off thus, with the 

 peculiar gait well known to experienced shots as the 

 forerunner of a speedy dissolution, than to see even the 

 prettiest somersault follow the striking of the ball. 



" In the present instance I watched the antelope 

 almost to the verge of the horizon. Now and then he 

 slackened his pace for a few seconds, and looked round 

 at his wounded flanks, and then, as if remembering that 

 he had not yet put sufficient distance between him and 

 the fatal spot, he would again start forward with 

 renewed, energy. The two does, as is generally the 

 case when the buck is wounded, had gone off in a dif- 

 ferent direction ; and were now standing on the plain, 

 a few hundred paces from where I stood, gazing wist- 

 fully from me to their wounded lord. Such are the 

 scenes that touch the heart of even the hardest deer- 

 stalker, and for a moment I almost wished my right 

 hand had been cut off ere I pulled trigger on this the 

 loveliest of God's creatures. 



" When he dwindled before the naked eye till he 

 seemed as a black speck on the far horizon, I still con- 

 tinued to watch him through my glass, in the hope that 

 he mio;ht lie down when he thouo;ht himself concealed, 

 in which case I might steal in and end his troubles by 

 another shot. Suddenly I saw him swerve from his 

 course, and start off in another direction at full speed. 

 Almost at the same instant a puff of smoke issued from 

 a small bush on the plain — the buck staggered and fell, 

 and, many seconds afterwards, the faint report of a gun- 

 shot reached my ears." 



The person who came to my aid in so timely a 

 fashion was a native sportsman, whom I then saw for 



F 2 



