88 
ON SAFARI 
fighting. Presently the bigger bull got an advantage, 
and the other fled. The fighting and the pursuit 
together had taken us some miles from our original 
position; we were now close under the foothills of 
Laikipia. Here at last the champion halted, the van¬ 
quished half-a-mile beyond, we double that distance 
astern. The victor had pulled up just beyond a little 
IMPALA. 
“Hardly had we left camp in the dawn than a lovely apparition showed up on 
the sky-line ahead.” (Got him in the neck: horns 24| ins.) 
string of gazelles that were feeding across the plain. I 
felt that if only those gazelles would stand I would get 
my shot. They did stand, and, firing over their heads 
at 300 yards, I realised the fierce joy of seeing that 
noble oryx bull drop stone-dead on the plain. The 
ball had struck the orifice of the ear, entering the brain 
—not a shot to boast of, as the shoulder had been my 
mark; yet withal no more magnificent trophy had ever 
fallen to my lot, nor a keener ambition been satisfied. 
