THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 171 



"Well," said he judicially, "you look at them all to 

 see if they are good; and then — well, you have money 

 — you have lots of money." 



Took the hint. Eggs worth one rupee for forty. 



Broke camp and struck straight across the valley. 

 A httle beyond where I hunted yesterday came to 

 loads of game, so the savages are right as to its being 

 here. Shot at a topi at sixty yards, and Kongoni said 

 the bullet went a foot in front of him! Found my 

 sight had been knocked way over. Hit another at 1 50 

 yards by aiming in front of him, but even then too far 

 back, so that although he was very wobbly he did not 

 come down. Cuninghame came up and I borrowed 

 his gun. Just then saw some wildebeeste the other 

 side of the wounded topi. Now a wildebeeste 's tail is 

 the surest road to a sultan's favour,* so I did some- 

 thing foolish — left a wounded beast afoot to go after 

 another. Killed the wildebeeste very prettily at 328 

 yards, and turned back to attend to my topi. It had 

 gathered strength and was walking away. It had a 

 walking fit, in fact, and never paused for five and a 

 half miles. It joined and went through much other 

 game; and as the other game was unhurt and curious 

 they prevented me from getting near enough for a shot. 

 Indeed I had a very hard time to keep track of it 

 at all, and finally lost it. Then I struck back for 

 home and by sheer accident ran on it newly dead! It 



* They are used as fly whisks. 



