AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



A fine buck roan stood motionless beneath a tree 

 in the valley below us. He was on the other side 

 of the stream jungle, and nearly a mile away. 

 While we watched him, he lay down. 



Our task now was to gain the shelter of the stream- 

 jungle below without being seen, to slip along it 

 until opposite the roan, and then to penetrate the 

 river jungle near enough to get a shot. The 

 first part of this contract seemed to us the most 

 difficult, for we were forced to descend the face of 

 the hill, like flies crawling down a blackboard, 

 plain for him to see. 



We slid cautiously from bush to bush; we moved 

 by imperceptible inches across the too numerous open 

 paces. About halfway down we were arrested by a 

 violent snort ahead. Fifteen or twenty zebra 

 nooning in the brush where no zebra were supposed 

 to be, clattered down the hill like an avalanche. We 

 froze where we were. The beasts ran fifty yards, 

 then wheeled, and stared back up the hill, trying to 

 make us out. For twenty minutes all parties to 

 the transaction remained stock still, the zebra 

 staring, we hoping fervently they would decide to 

 go down the valley and not up it, the roan doz- 

 ing under his distant tree. 



By luck our hopes were fulfilled. The zebra 

 turned down stream, walking sedately away in 



358 



