then there followed many hours of keen anxiety when I 

 believed that Jock was gone for ever ; and it was long 

 before that day found its place in the gallery of happy 

 memories. 



We had gone out after breakfast, striking well away 

 from the main road until we got among the thicker 

 thorns where there was any amount of fresh spoor 

 and we were quite certain to find a troop sooner or 

 later. The day was so still, the ground so dry, and 

 the bush so thick that the chances were the game would 

 hear us before we could get near enough to see them. 

 Several times I heard sounds of rustling bush or feet 

 cantering away : something had heard us and made 

 off unseen ; so I dropped down into the sandy bed of 

 a dry donga and used it as a stalking trench. From 

 this it was easy enough to have a good look around 

 every hundred yards or so without risk of being heard 

 or seen. We had been going along cautiously in this 

 way for some time when, peering over the bank, I 

 spied a single impala half hidden by a scraggy bush. 

 It seemed queer that there should be only one, as 

 their habit is to move in troops ; but there was nothing 

 else to be seen ; indeed it was only the flicker of an 

 ear on this one that had caught my eye. Nothing 

 else in the land moved. 



Jock climbed the bank also, following so closely 

 that he bumped against my heels, and when I lay flat 

 actually crawled over my legs to get up beside me and 

 see what was on. Little by little he got into the way 

 of imitating all I did, so that after a while it was 

 hardly necessary to say a word or make a sign 



159 ' 



