34 SAVAGE SUDAN 



STALKING THE DESERT-GAZELLE 



THREE TYPICAL EXAMPLES FROM DIARY 



(i) Fieldcraft comes in a Bad Second. Have been in 

 touch of game all day. Three separate troops have we 

 courted one of them twice ; yet sundown finds us empty- 

 handed. True, the desert here is desperately flat ; still 

 after each failure a lurking suspicion at first latent 

 finally enforced acceptance. The fault was mine, the old 

 fault of impatience. On each crucial occasion we had 

 essayed to "get in" too early, that is, before the psycho- 

 logical moment had arrived. 



Luckily, after the final failure, I still lay flat, "pumped 

 out," indulging in posthumous wisdom and untimely 

 regret. Right then, luck stepped in where fieldcraft and 

 foresight had failed. Close by the disc of the half-sunk 

 sun a figure breaks the horizon ... a tall camel, sur- 

 mounted by an Arab . . . and there moves something 

 between ? The afterglow obliterates detail, but soon 

 that something resolves itself into a little string of 

 disturbed gazelles. As the phantoms emerge in the 

 clearer light to southward, I see there are six, all does ; 

 then, 100 yards behind, follows a good buck. The light 

 being faint for a moving shot, I whistled. Instantly the 

 seven fairy forms became transfixed into images of bronze. 

 The six leaders half-wheel, facing ; but the one prize 

 remains full broadside, taking his cue from his consorts : 

 distance 1 20 yards. . . . Yes, quite a nice head, ID* inches. 



(ii) The Lesson Learnt. Shortly after dawn sighted a 

 dozen gazelle. The ground appeared open, but an hour's 

 watching revealed the fact that the game were feeding 

 into a very slight undulation not before noticed. I now 

 realised that this tiny dip ran straight ahead for a mile 

 or so ; also that, parallel with it and 200 yards to the 

 right, ran another low ridge crowned with scrub a clear 

 "advantage." Sheltered by this, I had more than half 



