TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 117 



company and go our ways alone, and taking our ponies 

 rode off in opposite directions. After some time I 

 tethered my steed and left him for the syce to attend 

 to, and then I mooned along slowly until I must have 

 traversed a mile or so. I lay down awhile, and then a 

 bunch of aoul crossed my front, a Speke's Gazelle with 

 them but not of them, for he held himself well 

 aloof, and seemed by his very bearing to say he was 

 only with them by accident. The aoul moved on, but 

 the Speke began to feed, and I realised then he carried 

 a head worth having, and I must take it an' I could. I 

 was out of range, and it meant a careful stalk. I hoped 

 he would not notice me if I wriggled to the next clump 

 of wait-a-bit, which showed the crassness of my 

 ignorance ! Of course, he knew something was afoot, 

 and I had to lie still for ages ere I deceived him into 

 passivity again. The ground was like a razor's edge ; 

 small stones and sharp-edged flints cut into my poor 

 knees, but I crept nearer by twenty paces. The sun- 

 light danced again on his shining coat, and all his 

 thoughts were hemmed in now by a little patch of 

 green grass he had come on. He consumed this while 

 I squirmed from point to point, and then with a whisk 

 of his tail he was off again. A brisk run brought him 

 in view once more, and all this time my presence had 

 never really irked him. Aha ! I pretty well had him. 

 A few paces more when, wonder of wonders, he saw 

 some danger signal in quite another quarter and 

 dashed away, this time with no halting. He was gone 

 for ever. I rose and stretched myself, when a distant 

 bush of wait-a-bit yielded up another figure, doing the 



