116 THE ELAND ESCAPES. 



until I had reduced my distance from the eland to about 

 eighty yards, when, jumping off, I fired. The previous 

 gallop and excitement caused my hand to shake, and 

 I heard the harmless whistle of the bullet as it sped on its 

 course. The eland made a leap and changed his direction, 

 giving me a broadside shot ; I dropped on my knee, and 

 sent the second bullet into his shoulder; he stumbled as 

 the shot struck him, but still held gallantly on. Again 

 mounting, and loading as I cantered, I kept in his wake, 

 hoping to see him soon fall, as he was bleeding freely; 

 but he seemed to be rather invigorated by the loss of 

 blood. 



One of the Boers, who had changed to his second horse, 

 now passed me, and firing, placed a second bullet in the 

 eland's shoulder. The eland still trotted rapidly away, 

 and both my horse and the Boer's being completely 

 blown, we could go no farther. We could see the 

 wounded animal pass over a hill in our front, and appa- 

 rently go directly down on the other side ; we managed to 

 lead our horses to the top where he had passed, and took 

 a minute survey of the surrounding plains, but could 

 discover no signs of our lost antelope, as the country was 

 so much broken by clumps of trees and undulations. 



The other Dutchmen soon joined us, and blessed the 

 eland in choice language for escaping and being such 

 a hard runner. We all spread out along the ridges, to 

 get if possible a view, as also to search for spoor ; but the 

 hard state of the ground prevented our doing anything by 

 the latter means. 



Evening closing in, we were forced to give up, and 



