420 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



his travels had started, and in turn abandoned, several 

 new tunnels, till his spoor was finally lost in long grass. 

 In the afternoon I went out to have a look round, and 

 soon found a fresh track, which led us back towards 

 camp. At one spot three ant-bears seemed to have met; 

 so we decided on following the spoor that seemed to 

 trend nearest to camp, and traced it to a burrow, which 

 showed no signs of the beast having left. After going 

 back for a hurried meal, Hyde and I, with rifles, water- 

 proofs, and lantern, returned for a midnight vigil. 

 Taking up our quarters on a point of land where two 

 river-beds met, and some four yards from the mouth of 

 the burrow, we lay down. The night was clear, but 

 there was no moon, and, as the place lay in thick bush, 

 there was no sky-line to show up the animal, should it 

 appear. An hour after we had lain down, the ant-bear 

 began to move, and suddenly thrust its head out and 

 back again. Thereupon, dead silence for ten minutes, 

 except for the thumping of my heart, as I kept 

 finger on trigger and tried to pierce the darkness. 

 Then, as it came out again, I fired, and we heard the 

 beast scuttle back and dig violently for a minute or two 

 and then stop. Was it the death-struggle.-* Lighting 

 the lantern, we e.xamined the ground, but there were 

 no signs of blood. We lay down again and heard 

 nothing for two hours but the hum of the mosquito ; 

 then a rustle in the grass warned us that something was 

 approaching our right front. Swinging the rifle round, 

 I made out a shadowy form in the brushwood and fired, 

 as it stopped six or eight yards off. Then came several 

 thumps, as of a great frog leaping, a cracking of under- 



