42 LARGE GAME. chap. i. 



in the open, and after a cautious approach, we discovered 

 that it was dead. It turned out to be a cow, one of those 

 that I had fired at in the water, with a ball in her chest ; 

 and cutting off the tail as a trophy, we passed on and 

 soon reached the cover. Just on its outskirts we found 

 that one, and that the one that was bleeding most, had 

 separated from the rest and had entered it alone, and the 

 question arose whether we should follow it up first, or go 

 in after the herd. I wished to do the former, and my 

 hunter the latter. He, very naturally, wanted to find 

 fresh buffalo, as those already wounded belonged, by 

 hunter's law, to me, and as I did not care much, and felt 

 pretty sure that the one that had separated would not go 

 far, I agreed to follow the herd. 



This we did ; but as soon as we got inside we found 

 that another of the wounded, which, by the blood be- 

 sprinkling the twigs and leaves, we could tell was the cow 

 which I had shot in the shoulder, had also separated ; 

 however, we kept on after the main body, and after fol- 

 lowing them through all their devious wanderings with 

 the utmost caution — for the bush was composed of ukaku 

 thorn, and there was not a tree in the whole of it where 

 one would be safe — we came upon them standing in a 

 little thicket on the outside of, and separated from the 

 rest by a couple of yards of open. We both caught sight 

 of their black shadows simultaneously, and crouched, and 

 then, instinctively, without a word, each glided to opposite 

 corners of the bush, so as to command a second shot when 

 they broke ; and I, the quicker of the two, took aim at 

 the black mass — one could not distinguish which was head 

 and which was tail — and fired first. Of course I jumped 



