just suited for his purpose but among lighter 

 bush on the opposite side and about twenty 

 yards nearer to us. There was no room for 

 doubt about his hostile intentions ; and when we re- 

 called how we had instantly picked out the thick bush 

 on the left to the exclusion of everything else as 

 the spot to be watched, his selection of more open 

 ground on the other side, and nearer to us, seemed 

 so fiendishly clever that it made one feel cold and creepy. 

 One hesitates to say it was deliberately planned ; yet 

 plan, instinct or accident there was the fact. 



The marks showed us he was badly hit ; but there 

 was no limb broken, and no doubt he was good for 

 some hours yet. We followed along the spoor, more 

 cautiously than ever ; and when we reached the sharp 

 turn beyond the thick bush we found that the path was 

 only a few yards from the stream, so that on our way up 

 the bed of the creek we had passed within twenty yards 

 of where the buffalo was waiting for us. No doubt he 

 had heard us then as we walked past, and had winded us 

 later on when we got ahead of him into the poort. 



What * had he made of it ? What had he 

 done ? Had he followed up to attack us ? Was 

 he waiting somewhere near ? Or had he broken 

 away into the bush on finding himself headed off ? 

 These were some of the questions we asked our- 

 selves as we crept along. 



Well ! what he had done did not answer our ques- 

 tions. On reaching the poort again we found his spoor, 

 freshly made since we had been there, and he had walked 

 right along through the gorge without stopping again, 



286 



