232 



SUGHEIT. 



single object doubled, and proclaimed its character beyond 

 any further doubt. I dismounted, and prepared for action. 

 The buck, benefiting by our audible doubts, aware of dan- 

 ger, sprang up, and moved away, but not rapidly ; so, 

 using Subhan's shoulder as a rest, I levelled Whitworth, 

 and with similar effect to the former shot, the missile 

 being seen skipping far away, and the animal stopping 

 with drooping head. He soon lay down, and on our 

 approach rose and made off at a laboured trot ; when an 

 Enfield bullet, striking him in the rear, and traversing 

 his body, stretched him lifeless. 



We had ridden on some eight hundred yards, when 

 another buck suddenly rose, and stood bewildered, be- 

 holding us. Phuttoo fumbled so long with the Whit- 

 worth ere handing it to me, that the buck had turned, 

 and was going off at a brisk pace, when I aimed and 

 fired. " Mara, mara," was again the exclamation. We 

 thought he was another victim. But it was only to this 

 extent ; his left horn was struck off close to his head, to 

 the intense discomfiture of the poor beast, which threw 

 itself into all sorts of contortions as it dashed away. We 

 left the carcases in Kamal's custody to be cleaned and 

 brought to camp ; where we shortly pulled up in a bight 

 of an indent, down which trickled a thread of clear water 

 which produced a patch of unhealthy-looking turf, and 

 some scattered blades of grass in the vicinity. 



Subhan and I started after an antelope we had seen 

 near by. He had vanished. We saw others but does, 

 too wary to get near. We wandered up and down ; 

 found tracks of kyang, and made for a gorge, where they 

 might harbour. There we spied a buck ; and, as he ap- 

 peared to have spied us, retreated, and, creeping up the 

 dry watercourse, surprised him feeding on the bank, and 

 rolled him over. Now we turned towards camp; on 



