THE SABLE 



glanced at it casually through our glasses. It was a 

 sable buck lying down right out in the open. He 

 was black and sleek, and we could make out his 

 sweeping scimitar horns. 



Memba Sasa and the Swahili dropped flat on their 

 faces while F. and I crawled slowly and cautiously 

 through the mud until we had gained the cover of 

 a shallow ravine that ran in the beast's general 

 direction. Noting carefully a certain small thicket 

 as landmark, we stooped and moved as fast as we 

 could down to that point of vantage. There we 

 cautiously parted the grasses and looked. The sable 

 had disappeared. The place where he had been 

 lying was plainly to be identified; and there was no 

 cover save a tiny bush between two and three feet 

 high. We were quite certain he had neither seen nor 

 winded us. Either he had risen and gone forward 

 into the ravine up which we had made our stalk, 

 or else he had entered the small thicket. F. agreed 

 to stay on watch where he was while I slipped back 

 and examined the earth to leeward of the thicket. 



I had hardly crawled ten yards, however, before 

 the gentle snapping of F.'s fingers recalled me to 

 his side. 

 ' " He's behind that bush," he whispered in my ear. 



I looked. The bush was hardly big enough to 

 conceal a setter dog; and the sable is somewhat 



93 



I 



