was sent rolling yards away. This seemed to madden 

 him : racing up behind he flew at the dangling leg, 

 caught it at the shin, and thrusting his feet well out, 

 simply dragged until the buck slowed down, and then 

 began furiously tugging sideways. The crossing of the 

 legs brought the wounded animal down immediately and 

 Jock had it by the throat before it could rise again. 



Every one who is good at anything has some favourite 

 method or device of his own : that was Jock's. It 

 may have come to him, as it comes to many, by acci- 

 dent ; but having once got it, he perfected it and used 

 it whenever it was possible. Only once he made a 

 mistake ; and he paid for it very nearly with his life. 



He had already used this device successfully several 

 times, but so far only with the smaller buck. This day 

 he did what I should have thought to be impossible for 

 a dog of three or four times his size. I left the scene of 

 torn carcase and crunched bones, consumed by regrets 

 and disappointment ; each fresh detail only added 

 to my feeling of disgust, but Jock did not seem to mind ; 

 he jumped out briskly as soon as I started walking in 

 earnest, as though he recognised that we were making 

 a fresh start, and he began to look forward immediately. 



The little bare flat where the koodoo had fallen for 

 the last time was at the head of one of those depressions 

 which collect the waters of the summer floods and, 

 changing gradually into shallow valleys, are eventually 

 scoured out and become the dongas dry in winter 

 but full charged with muddy flood in summer which 

 drain the Bushveld to its rivers. Here and there 

 where an impermeable rock formation crosses these 

 181 



