258 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap, xxiii 



them in full cry followed by six natives armed with 

 spears. We went after the intruders, and gradually all 

 the dogs gave up the chase and came back, while the 

 men looked at me in absolute bewilderment, as if I 

 had just dropped down from the clouds. However, seeing 

 that all chance of sport was gone, we returned to the mules 

 and moved on over the plain, till we came to a pool of 

 water in the rocky bed of a stream. On the far side, 

 close to a bamboo-clump, I saw seven roan antelope, 

 but they became suspicious and made off 1 fired at the 

 largest and, after breaking its foreleg, apparently hit it 

 again twice, but although we traced it for a long time, 

 and tried twice to cut it off, it outdistanced us and got 

 away. I was much tired on my return to camp, which 

 was not to be wondered at, after the enforced laziness of 

 the last three weeks ; for it was very hot, and I had done 

 seven and a half hours' walking and one and a half hours' 

 ridinp- since morning. 



