boy was down on to his knees in a second, panting 

 with anger and excitement, and threw his arms about 

 the buck. 



The foremost of the pack followed hot foot 

 close behind the buck oblivious of fire and men, 

 If/' seeing nothing but the quarry and at a distance of 

 if five yards a mixed volley of bullets and assegais tumbled 

 it over. Another followed, and again another : both 

 fell where they had stopped, a dozen yards away, 

 puzzled by the fire and the shooting ; and still more 

 and more came on, but, warned by the unexpected 

 check in front, they stopped at the clearing's edge, 

 until over twenty pairs of eyes reflecting the fire's 

 light shone out at us in a rough semi-circle. The 

 shot guns came in better then ; and more than half 

 the pack went under that night before the others 

 cleared off. Perhaps they did not realise that the 

 shots and flashes were not part of the camp fire from 

 which they seemed to come ; perhaps their system 

 of never relinquishing a chase had not been tried 

 against the white man before. 



One of the wild dogs, wounded by a shot, seemed 

 to go mad with agony and raced straight into the clear- 

 ing towards the fire, uttering the strangest maniac-like 

 yaps. Jock had all along been straining to go for them 

 from where I had jammed him between my feet as I 

 sat and fired, and the charge of this dog was more than 

 he could bear : he shot out like a rocket, and the col- 

 lision sent the two flying apart ; but he was on to the 

 wild dog again and had it by the throat before it could 

 recover. Instantly the row of lights went out, as if 



300 



