THE CAPTIVE RELEASED 



signalled to Jones, who gave a shout. At once the 

 giraffe seemed to make up his mind that it was time 

 to move. But he had made it up too late. One of 

 the cowboys was after him, swinging his lasso. 



It was no easy task to catch the animal. To begin 

 with, there was the fact that a giraffe is about the most 

 fragile thing on the veldt. A heavy fall means either 

 a broken neck or a broken limb, and my object was 

 to avoid any injury to my quarry. Then, too, there 

 was his immense height : he was so utterly different 

 from anything else that his pursuer had ever tried to 

 lasso. Yet, so skilful was that American from the 

 plains of the West, that he did the thing at the very 

 first throw. The noose seemed to fall gently and 

 exactly in the right place, and in an incredibly short 

 space of time the huge beast was at a standstill, gazing 

 at his captor with open-eyed astonishment. 



I wasted no time over getting to work. There 

 was just enough light to run off my film. Then there 

 remained another question — the giraffe had to be freed 

 again. Once more I had occasion to admire the skill 

 of those Americans. A rope round the hind legs, 

 a steady pull, and the animal was down on the ground. 

 The first lasso was taken off, then the second was 

 slipped. The giraffe scrambled to his feet, shook 

 himself, stood perfectly still, and watched us until 

 we were out of sight over a rise. I wonder what he 

 thought of it all ? 



155 



