THE ROAN ANTELOPE 103 



of red-fronted gazelle, I started at dawn for a long day in 

 these forests of Kordofan. The country was the usual 

 blend of thicker wood alternating with inset stretches of 

 prairie and low bush. Almost at the start we struck 

 burning- spoor of lion, which of course we followed, and 

 soon its indications clearly showed that the beast was 

 seeking a convenient lie-up. Here the spoor zigzagged 

 erratically from bush to bush and anticipation waxed 

 keen. Baraka indicated that he smelt the lion ; but 

 when he began to peer into individual clumps of bush, 

 scrutinismg their inmost recesses, I thought it time to 

 prepare for close-quarters and unshipped the telescope- 

 sight. Such moments set one's blood coursing. But an 

 anti-climax followed when my good shikari, suddenly 

 poising his spear, hurled it into a dense nabbuk-thorn 

 . . . at a hare! 



The bush growing thicker, we eventually lost the 

 lion-spoor, though more than once Baraka had displayed 

 fine field-craft in picking it up afresh. Presently, having 

 shot a gazelle, I sent my second gun-boy to carry the 

 game down to the boat, Baraka and I smoking meanwhile 

 in the shade. During this brief interlude, the insistent 

 chattering of a honey-guide {Indicator} had induced 

 Baraka to follow the importunate bird ; with the result 

 that within 100 yards it led him to a store of wild- 

 honey. Ten minutes later the "boy" came rushing 

 back in terror ; he had run right into our lost lion ! 

 Bad luck that the King of Beasts should thus grant inter- 

 view to a boy with a gazelle instead of to a man with a 

 rifle ? We returned at once to the spot, and there beyond 

 all doubt within 15 yards of the dead gazelle were 

 imprinted on the sandy soil the great pug-marks where 

 the lion had quietly quitted his couch. It was a com- 

 paratively small bush, quite open underneath, that he had 

 selected for his lie-up; had we only had the luck to pass 

 that way, we could hardly have failed to detect him. As 

 ill-chance fell out, we had been searching within 100 yards 



