chap. vii. HUNTING WITH DOGS. 357 



prised to see that he was the cause. The gully by the side 

 of which we had been going had taken a long bend, and 

 the native, aware of the fact, had taken advantage of it 

 to ride straight and conceal himself in it ; and as the herd 

 reached him he sprang up and raced them at full speed 

 for nearly half a mile, by which time his little mare was 

 blown. But it had been of immense service to me, pushing 

 and tiring the hartebeest, and causing them to alter their 

 course so much, that, without increasing my pace, the 

 distance between us was lessened by one-half. Thinking 

 that it would be a good thing if I could press and tire 

 them now before they had time to breathe again, I spoke 

 to my horse, and in a few moments we were flying across 

 the flat at the top of his speed. The antelopes were 

 settling back into their regular stride as I did this, and 

 I had gained another fifty yards before they saw me, 

 when they jumped away as fast as ever. For upwards of 

 a mile we maintained the same pace, when my horse 

 showing symptoms of becoming distressed, I steadied 

 him, and the hartebeest then soon resumed the pace that 

 they had been going at before. 



For the next two miles there was no change, and we 

 had been going so fast and so long that I began to think 

 that the chase would end as all the others had, when I 

 noticed that one seemed to be lagging a yard or two 

 behind its comrades. My fastest greyhound was the only 

 dog now with me, and it had settled down into galloping 

 alongside of my horse ; but, although distressed, it was 

 not dead beat, and answered at once when I spoke to it 

 and urged it forward, and in a few minutes it ran up to 

 within twenty yards of them and gave tongue. Tins had 



