THE RAHAD RIVER 191 



appeared, three-quarters away from me. He 

 bounded forward with a growl, and disappeared in the 

 long grass . 



March 22nd. Nothing further occurred in the 

 night except that a lion roared within half a mile. 

 At daybreak the goat became most restless, and 

 presently out walked a serval and proceeded to 

 investigate the goat in the same manner as the lion. 

 This small animal was most alert, and the faintest 

 movement caused it to look up at me. With 

 a great deal of care I got my rifle aligned, and it 

 fell stone-dead to the shot. I then descended from 

 the machan and looked for blood, but could find none 

 until my men arrived, and then with some difficulty 

 we found fresh blood in three places in the direction 

 in which the lion had disappeared. Then the blood 

 ceased altogether, and I began to have misgivings 

 as to the result of my hasty shot, and also regretted 

 having persistently used the small-bore rifle for 

 machan work, the reason being that I might 

 have wanted to shoot at 30 yards, and knew its 

 extreme accuracy. I set to work and skinned 

 the serval, and after more than an hour the 

 shikaris returned with news of blood a quarter of 

 a mile off. I saw the place, and decided to return to 

 the village for food, water, spare rifles, and any dogs 

 that I could lay hands on. This I did and returned 

 by 10 a.m., and, to make a long story short, 



