296 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



of a distant klipspringer. Down I went, and oh, how 

 I pra}*ed Cecily would keep quiet, and not set a dozen 

 stones a-rolling, for she had not sighted the prize. I 

 threw up my rifle and took careful aim. The klip- 

 springer was off. It perched again on a spiky summit. 

 Bang ! sounded to the astonishment of Cecily. The 

 little buck took a header clean off its halting place, and 

 turning somersaults fell a hundred feet or so. We 

 slid and ran and fell after it. I made certain its horns 

 would be broken and useless, but, thank goodness, we 

 found them intact. I had hit the klipspringer fair 

 and square in the heart, and its rough olive-coloured 

 coat was hardly marked. The little straight horns of 

 this trophy measured three and three quarter inches. 

 The females are hornless. 



} Then came the difficulty of packing our prize back to 

 camp — our camp in the skies. First we sought a 

 stout branch, and then tied the hollow rounded hoofs 

 of the little klipspringer to it. We always went about 

 with our pockets stuffed with cord and useful things, 

 the sort of things a woman in peace times would not 

 find useful at all. Then we lifted together. What a 

 mighty weight for so small a thing ! The rests we had, 

 the slips downhill, the tempers we got into, are they 

 not all graphically described in my diaries of the day 

 in the following terse but meaning words : " I shot 

 a klipspringer at the bottom of a ravine. Cecily and I 

 carried it back to our camp in the Upper Sheik our- 

 selves." Simple words, but fragrant with meaning. 



Near camp the waiting Clarence met us, and we 

 gladly turned over the klipspringer to him. It was 



