IN PURSUIT OF GIRAFFE 



for one was growing very weary of the march, and 

 was feeling the sun severely, when Ulyate suddenly 

 pointed to a clump of trees a little ahead. 



" There are giraffe there," he said. 



I looked carefully, and there, surely enough, I could 

 see things moving amongst the tree-tops. 



A moment later the animals broke away, stretching 

 out their legs in a gallop. At once the cowboys were 

 after them, but, as we knew, they had little chance. 

 Their horses had been suffering from the heat, for 

 which the giraffe cared nothing. Still, Jones and his 

 two assistants held on ; they would never give up so 

 long as their mounts would carry them. I myself, 

 on the other hand, decided to span at that clump of 

 trees. It was hopeless trying to trek on through 

 that heat, and in the unHkely event of the giraffe being 

 turned it would be a good place for working the 

 cameras. We got these ready, threw ourselves down 

 and gasped, thanking our stars that it was not 

 we who were pelting across that baked stretch of 

 veldt. The carriers, too, were glad enough of the 

 rest, and so were the oxen when they came up a little 

 later. Really, of course, it is clean against all the rules 

 of transport work to trek in the heat of the day, but 

 the circumstances were exceptional. Sometimes the 

 strictest of rules has to be broken, and shortness of 

 water is a sufficient excuse for anything. 



After a long while the cowboys came back one by 



153 



