VII THROUGH A GAME COUNTRY 



79 



perfectly flat on the ground until I got to this 

 hollow, but when once under cover I was able to 

 push on much more rapidly and soon reached 

 the point from which I hoped to be able to get a 

 clear and close view of the eland. Strange to say, on 

 peeping carefully from behind the cover of a friendly 

 ant heap, I could nowhere make out the form of the 

 beast, and was for a time extremely puzzled as to 

 what had become of him. The fact was that I had 

 forgotten to make due allowance for the distance 

 which I had travelled, and was looking at quite the 

 wrong spot — a thing- which is very likely to happen 

 unless careful calculation is made beforehand of the 

 position of the quarry with regard to some 

 commanding object. Indeed I did not discover my 

 mistake or catch sight of the eland until it attracted 

 my attention by suddenly whisking round and 

 looking, not at me, but at the moving woolly head of 

 Mellauw, who had disobeyed my instructions and 

 had crawled up to a position on my left some distance 

 off to see how I was getting on. For this dis- 

 obedience I had a few words to say to him later on 

 when the adventure was over. 



There was, of course, no time to be lost now, so 

 taking as steady an aim as I could at the startled 

 eland, I fired straight at his heart. The instant he 

 felt the lead, he gave a kick and a buck and was 

 out of sight in a moment behind a small rise. I 



