60 BIG GAME. SHOOTING ~ 
fourteen dogs, our night watchmen ; so I took up my gun, 
which was only loaded in one barrel, and strolled out on the 
chance. of a shot.; but as, kill or miss, I intended to return 
immediately, I did not carry any spare ammunition. <A réedy 
pond lay close in advance of the waggons in a little opening ; 
beyond this, as on every other side, stretched a sea of bush 
and mimosa-trees. ‘Two hundred yards from the outspan I 
came upon a clump of quagga and wounded one, which 
though mortally hit struggled on before falling. I followed, 
and marking the place where it fell, set my face as I thought. 
towards the waggons, meaning to send out men for the 
flesh. No doubt of the direction crossed my mind—the pool 
was certuinly not more that 4oo yards in a straight line, and 
I thought I could walk down upon it without any trouble ; 
so taking no notice of my out tracks, which had bent slightly 
in following the quagga, I started. It was now about 10 A.M. ; 
little did I think that 5 p.m. would still find me seeking three 
vans nearly as large as Pickford’s, and half an acre of water. 
In my first cast I cannot say whether I got wide or stopped 
short of the mark I was making for, and it was not until I had 
wandered about carelessly hither and thither for half an hour, 
feeling sure that it was only the one particular bush in front 
of me which hid the waggons, that I very unwillingly owned 
to myself that I was drifting without bearings in this bushy 
sea. The sun was nearly overhead, and gave but slight help as 
to direction, and the constant turning to avoid thick patches of 
thorns rendered it nearly impossible, in the absence of any guid- 
ing point, to hold a fixed course through this maze of sameness. 
I tried walking in circles in the hopes of cutting the wheel 
tracks, but though on a previous occasion this plan had 
succeeded, it now failed. As with empty gun I plodded on, 
occasional small herds of rooyebuck and blue wildebeest, 
evidently very much at home, swept and capered by mie, and, 
stopping and looking at me with wondering eyes, increased 
my feeling of loneliness. I had no doubts of regaining my 
party next day at. latest, and cared but little for passing a night 
a a 
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