A DAY'S SPOKT. 267 



tioned to ray companion that I fancied I had seen some- 

 thing move on the opposite hill, and that I purposed 

 creeping back to have a second look. He voted for 

 riding over the hill, but this I would not hear of. 



Keeping well down in the grass, I managed to peep 

 through a tree, and there saw a fine reitbok looking after 

 us. He stood up for about a minute as if he were watch- 

 ing to see if we had really gone away, when, seeming to 

 think everything safe, he laid himself down again. I 

 reported what I had seen to my impatient companion, and 

 proposed that we should make a long round, and come 

 upon the buck from the opposite side. We, therefore, left 

 our horses, and crossed the ravine between the two hills 

 on foot, taking care to keep well out of sight. I drew 

 my charge of shot and loaded, so as to have a bullet in 

 each barrel; my friend preferring two heavy doses of 

 buck-shot. All being in readiness, we approached the 

 ground that I had marked as the reitbok's lair, and were 

 within fifty yards of it, when the buck got the alarm and 

 bounded off. I had only a snap shot at him, my friend 

 fired at the same instant, and the buck fell. We ran 

 up, and, to the evident disappointment of one of the party, 

 found that the buck had been killed by a bullet-wound 

 which had passed close to the backbone. There was not 

 a single shot-hole in him besides this one ; there could be 

 no mistake, therefore, about the arm which delivered the 

 death-wound. We brought the horses to the spot, mounted 

 the dead buck on my pony, and then took up a fresh 

 line of country in hopes of finding another buck. We 

 went some distance with no luck, when my dog flushed a 



