28 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
Our hunt after wildebeest this afternoon was successful; 
but though by velt law each animal was mine, because I 
hit it first, yet in reality the credit was communistic, so to 
speak, and my share was properly less than that of others. 
I first tried to get up to a solitary old bull, and after a good 
deal of manoeuvring, and by taking advantage of a second 
rain squall, I got a standing shot at him at four hundred 
yards, and hit him, but too far back. Although keeping 
a good distance away, he tacked and veered so, as he ran, 
that by much running myself I got various other shots at 
him, at very long range, but missed them all, and he finally 
galloped over a distant ridge, his long tail switching, seem¬ 
ingly not much the worse. We followed on horseback; 
for I hate to let any wounded thing escape to suffer. But 
meanwhile he had run into view of Kermit; and Kermit— 
who is of an age and build which better fit him for suc¬ 
cessful breakneck galloping over unknown country dotted 
with holes and bits of rotten ground—took up the chase 
with enthusiasm. Yet it was sunset, after a run of six or 
eight miles, when he finally ran into and killed the tough old 
bull, which had turned to bay, snorting and tossing its horns. 
Meanwhile I managed to get within three hundred 
and fifty yards of a herd, and picked out a large cow which 
was unaccompanied by a calf. Again my bullet went too 
far back; and I could not hit the animal at that distance 
as it ran. But after going half a mile it lay down, and 
would have been secured without difficulty if a wretched 
dog had not run forward and put it up; my horse was a 
long way back, but Pease, who had been looking on at a 
distance, was mounted, and sped after it. By the time I 
had reached my horse Pease was out of sight; but riding 
