And then, without the slightest sign, cause or warn- 

 ing that I could detect, in one instant every sound 

 ceased. I watched the reeds like a cat on the pounce : 

 never a stir or sign or sound : they had vanished. 

 I turned to Rocky : he was standing at ease, and there 

 was the faintest look of amusement in his eyes. 



" They must be there ; they can't have got away ? " 

 It was a sort of indignant protest against his evident 

 c chucking it ' ; but it was full of doubt all the 

 same. 



" Try ! " he said, and I jumped into the reeds 

 straight away. The under-foliage, it is true, was 

 thicker and deeper than it had looked ; but for all that 

 it was like a conjuring trick they were not there ! 

 I waded through a hundred yards or more of the narrow 

 belt it was not more than twenty yards wide any- 

 where but the place was deserted. It struck me 

 then that if they could dodge us at five to ten yards 

 while we were watching from the bank and they 

 did not know it Well, I ' chucked it ' too. Rocky 

 was standing in the same place with the same faint 

 look of friendly amusement when I got back, wet and 

 muddy. 



" Pigs is like that," he said, " same as elephants 

 jus' disappears ! " 



We went on again, and a quarter of an hour later, it 

 may be, Rocky stopped, subsided to a sitting position, 

 beckoned to me, and pointed with his levelled rifle 

 in front. It was a couple of minutes before he could 

 get me to see the stembuck standing in the shade of 

 a thorn tree. I would never have seen it but for his 



45 



