350 LARGE GAME. chap. VII. 



and in that position I remained for I should think half- 

 an-hour, listening intently, but unable to distinguish any- 

 thing ; the growling of the dog, after becoming so furious 

 that I every instant expected him to fly out upon the 

 midnight prowler, gradually becoming fainter and fainter, 

 until, after momentarily disappearing in the darkness, he 

 again lay down by my side ; and nothing more happened 

 to disturb us that night. When morning dawned the 

 first thing I did was to go and look for spoor, and there, 

 sure enough, were the animal's great footprints. He 

 must have been a cowardly brute, for he had jumped the 

 fence, walked round the hut where the goats were tethered, 

 which must have been too terrified to even bleat, and then 

 after coming in my direction had turned sharp off and 

 jumped out again, but if the dog had not been there it is 

 more than probable that he would not have despised the 

 human morsel lying so temptingly in his path. 



Three days after this, with the usual bad luck with 

 dogs that has always attended me, I accidentally killed 

 this one. I had been stalking a mixed herd of gnu and 

 zebra, which in all might number a couple of hundred, 

 but they had taken to flight before I was ready to fire, 

 and in doing so had raised such a dust in the dry red 

 soil that they were perfectly concealed by it ; as also 

 were my dogs, both of which had bolted after them. Of 

 course, I could take no particular aim, and so fired both 

 barrels into the thickest of the cloud, thinking that among 

 so many my bullets could hardly fail to prove effective. 

 I could not have given them both the same elevation 

 however, for when the dust settled there was a zebra try- 

 ing to hobble away, and ten yards on this side of where 



