AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



mens of which we greatly desired. The beast keeps 

 to the thickest and driest cover, where it is impos- 

 sible to see fifty yards ahead, but where the slightest 

 movement breaks one of the numberless dry inter- 

 lacements of which the place seems made. To 

 move really quietly one could not cover over a half 

 mile in an hour. As the countryside extends a 

 thousand square miles or more, and the lesser kudu 

 is rare, it can be seen that hunting them might have 

 to be a slow and painful process. We had twice 

 seen their peculiar tracks. 



On this morning, however, we caught a glimpse 

 of the beast itself. A flash of gray, with an impres- 

 sion of the characteristic harnesslike stripes — that 

 was all. The trail, in the soft ground, was of course 

 very plain. I left the others, and followed it into 

 the brush. As usual the thorn scrub was so thick 

 that I had to stoop and twist to get through it at 

 all, and so brittle that the least false move made a 

 crackling like a fire. The rain of the night before 

 had, however, softened the debris lying on the 

 ground. I moved forward as quickly as I could, 

 half suffocated in the steaming heat of the dense 

 thicket. After three or four hundred yards the 

 beast fell into a walk, so I immediately halted. I 

 reasoned that after a few steps at this gait he would 

 look back to see whether or not he was followed. 



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