8o IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA CHAP. 



gave chase as fast as possible, but on reaching 

 the hillock behind which he had disappeared I 

 could not see him anywhere, nor could I find 

 any trace of blood. On my left, at a distance of 

 about 150 yards from the spot where I had fired, 

 there was a steep declivity down to the valley 

 already mentioned, so I rushed to the edge of 

 this and looked over, expecting to see the eland 

 struggling down to the bottom. There was no 

 sign of him, however, so I ran off to the right, 

 thinking that he might have gone behind a fold of 

 the ground in that direction. He was not to be 

 found there either, and I was completely puzzled to 

 know what had become of him. By this time the 

 two Masai whom I had called to my assistance had 

 come up, so I mounted Aladdin and galloped off 

 to a rise at a little distance from which there was a 

 good view all round; but still the eland was nowhere 

 to be seen. 



I could not understand it at all, for I knew that 

 he had been hard hit and could not have gone very 

 far, so I returned to the Masai and told them that 

 there was nothing to be done but to keep searching 

 until we found him. We then went back to the 

 place where I had shot him, and from there, after 

 infinite pains, we managed to track him, step by 

 step, to the edge of the precipice over which I had 

 already looked. There was no doubt now that we 



