FOUR DAYS 121 



them with the hunters while Tweedie waited 

 in the nullah. The bull had joined the herd, 

 and we had not gone far upon the track when 

 the herd took alarm and moved off. Tweedie 

 joined us, and we followed mechanically without 

 any real hope of coming up with the buffaloes. 

 Despair possessed me. I had made many attempts, 

 and much the same thing had happened on each 

 occasion. Luck, as subsequent events showed, 

 had been against me, but at the time it appeared 

 to me that the fault lay with myself, and that I 

 must abandon the hope of stalking and shooting 

 buffalo and bison, and must leave the pursuit 

 to other and younger men. 



Fortune, however, was kind on this occasion. 

 Unknown to me, there was another sandy nullah, 

 which joined the nullah from which we had 

 followed the buffalo, at right angles, about half 

 a mile from the place where we then were, and in 

 this second nullah some men were felling a tree. 

 This acted as a Stop, and blocked the retreat 

 of the buffaloes, and they accordingly slackened 

 their pace. Presently Tweedie spotted some of 

 them moving among the trees in front, and we 

 followed with renewed hope. Headed off by the 

 wood-cutters, the herd swung round and retraced 

 their steps along the slope of the rising ground, 

 upon which we were travelling, between us 

 and the nullah in which we had found the tracks. 

 I saw a moving mass below me on the slope at 

 a distance of about 200 yards ; and, seeing the 

 direction in which they were going, I pushed 

 on with Dhokuri as fast as I could along the brow 

 of the hill to cut them off. The manoeuvre 



