242 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
exact location — and he bewailed his misfortune. I 
ordered him to go home to camp and leave me, which 
he did with alacrity. After about half an hour my 
trembling fit passed. It was very cowardly to be so 
upset, but I hate unknown and quite unforeseen 
dangers, and an unsuspected bullet at close quarters 
demoralises me. 
I sat on quietly, and the bush began to stir and 
take up its daily round again, forgetting the demon 
crash that had disturbed its slumbers. A little red 
velveteen spider ran speedily up an armo leaf, tumbled 
over the edge and suspended himself on a golden wire. 
Jerk ! jerk ! Lower he went, then up again. Two 
bars of his house completed, when alas, a great fly> 
of the species that haunted our trophies, flew right 
across and smashed the spider-house to nothing. The 
velveteen spider sat on a leaf — fortunately he had 
made safety ere the Juggernaut passed along — and 
meditated, but only for a moment. He was a philo- 
sopher and knew all about the “Try, try, try again ” 
axiom. Over he hurled himself on another golden 
thread and laid another criss-cross foundation-stone. 
And there I left him because I wanted to penetrate 
farther. 
How could I manoeuvre a big antelope now if I 
shot one, seeing that my hunter had left me ? Was 
it not counting my chickens ? Yes, but that is what 
one does all the time in big game shooting ! 
In one bit of glade I worked my way through the 
caterpillars had played devastator ; every leaf was 
eaten. I hurried on. I rested again on a fallen 
