IN THE GULA VALLEY 143 



drivers, under the leadership of Johan and Peder, 

 were sweeping many miles of hill and forest, while 

 Ivor, on the flank, was guarding a possible outlet. 



All Nature smiled on us that day; but we were 

 intent on killing, if only the Fates to us were kind 

 and the opportunity should come in the shape of a 

 good bull elk disturbed by the men from his mid-day 

 couch, and so driven past our ambush. 



For an hour or more we sat. A. H. was in the 

 thicker trees close to the deep canon. We thought 

 it the more likely pass, but destiny otherwise decreed. 

 I sat on the outer edge of the belt of cover. To my 

 left was a wide open marsh, over which it was unlikely 

 that elk would break. In front of me was a stretch 

 of more open wood, through which I could see for a 

 few hundred yards. 



Presently to me appeared, not an elk, but a man. 

 It was one of the native drivers, who had apparently 

 gone wrong. He was long before his time. The rest 

 of the men were a mile or more away. The simple- 

 minded native, one of those engaged for the day, had 

 kept his appointed line of country, but had come 

 along too fast, and far outstripped his fellows, and 

 so unwittingly had run a chance of spoiling every- 

 thing. 



Then deep depression seized me by the throat. 

 All our plans were naught. How could any self- 

 respecting bull follow or cross a fresh human track, 

 and so face an unknown danger. Silently I beckoned 

 to the erring driver, pointed sternly to the rear of us, 

 and so whispered him to hide himself and then be still. 



In spite of this mishap, I thought it just possible 

 an elk might yet come through the thicker trees to 

 where A. H. sat, and took some comfort in the 



