97 
ch. iv] ANOTHER GIRAFFE HUNT 
evident in the landscape, it behoved him to be careful 
as to what might be hidden therein, and he shied so at 
each bush we passed that we progressed in series of 
loops. So off I jumped, throwing the reins over his 
head, and opened fire once more ; and this time the 
great bull went down for good. 
Tranquillity recovered his nerve at once, and grazed 
contentedly while I admired the huge proportions and 
beautiful colouring of my prize. In a few minutes 
Captain Slatter loped up, and the gun-bearers and saises 
followed. As if by magic, three or four Wakamba 
turned up immediately afterward, their eyes glistening 
at the thought of the feast ahead for the whole tribe. 
It was mid-afternoon, and there was no time to waste. 
My sais, Simba, an excellent long-distance runner, was 
sent straight to camp to get Heller and pilot him back 
to the dead giraffes. Beside each of the latter—for 
they had fallen a mile apart—we left a couple of men 
to build fires. Then we rode toward camp. To my 
regret, the smaller giraffe turned out to be a young bull 
and not a cow. 
At this very time, and utterly without our knowledge, 
there was another giraffe hunt going on. Sir Alfred 
had taken out Kermit and Medlicott, and they came 
across a herd of a dozen giraffes right out in the open 
plains. Medlicott’s horse was worn out, and he could 
not keep up, but both the others were fairly well 
mounted. Both were light men and hard riders, and, 
although the giraffes had three-quarters of a mile the 
start, it was not long before both were at the heels of 
the herd. They singled out the big bull—which, by the 
way, turned out to be an even bigger bull than mine— 
and fired at him as they galloped. In such a headlong, 
helter-skelter chase, however, it is no easy matter to 
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