him round where he stood, and through the trees 

 showed him the white tents of the waggons and the 

 cattle grazing near by, but he was too dazed to 

 understand or explain anything. 



There are many kinds of men. That particular 

 kind is not the kind that will ever do for veld life : 

 they are for other things and other work. You will 

 laugh at them at times when the absurdity is greatest 

 and no harm has been done. But see it ! See it 

 and realise the suspense, the strain, and the terror ; 

 and then even the funniest incident has another side 

 to it. See it once ; and recall that the worst of endings 

 have had just such beginnings. See it in the most 

 absurd and farcical circumstances ever known ; and 

 laugh laugh your fill ; laugh at the victim and laugh 

 with him, when it is over and safe. But in the end 

 will come the little chilling thought that the strongest, 

 the bravest, and the best have known something of it 

 too ; and that even to those whose courage holds to the 

 last breath there may come a moment when the pulse 

 beats a little faster and the judgment is at fault. 



Buggins who was with us in the first season was no 

 hunter, but he was a good shot and not a bad fellow. 

 In his case there was no tragedy ; there was much 

 laughter and to me a wonderful revelation. He 

 showed us, as in a play, how you can be lost ; how you 

 can walk for ever in one little circle, as though drawn 

 to a centre by magnetic force, and how you can miss 

 seeing things in the bush if they do not move. 



We had outspanned in a flat covered with close 

 grass about two feet high and shady flat-topped horn 



126 



