sometimes when we were having a slow time I used to 

 draw him by pretending to stalk something ; but it is 

 that first view that remains a picture of him. I 

 turned at the instant when he was at the top of his 

 jump ; his legs were all bunched up, his eyes staring 

 eagerly and his ears had flapped out, giving him a look 

 of comic astonishment. It was a most surprisingly 

 unreal sight : he looked like a caricature of Jock shot 

 into the air by a galvanic shock. A sign with my 

 hand brought him flat on the ground, looking distinctly 

 guilty, and we moved along again ; but I was shaking 

 with silent laughter. 



At the next stop I had a look back to see how he 

 was behaving, and to my surprise, although he was 

 following carefully close behind me, he was looking 

 steadily away to our immediate right. I subsided gently 

 on to my left side to see what it was that interested 

 him, and to my delight saw a troop of twenty to 

 twenty-five Blue Wildebeeste. They, too, were 

 1 standing any way,' and evidently had not seen us. 



I worked myself cautiously round to face them so 

 as to be able to pick my shot and take it kneeling, thus 

 clearing the tops of the grass ; but whilst doing this 

 another surprising development took place. Looking 

 hard and carefully at the wildebeeste two hundred 

 yards away, I became conscious of something else in 

 between us, and only half the distance off, looking at 

 me. It had the effect of a shock ; the disagreeable 

 effect produced] by having a book or picture suddenly 

 thrust close to the face ; the feeling of wanting to get 

 further away from it to re-focus one's sight. 



320 



