UTTERLY EXHAUSTED. 
289 
chance, I did not stop, but re-loaded at the gallop, 
thinking that my after-rider was sure to find her. 
After a long, stern chase, I again came up with the 
troop, and shot a cow above the tail, and never in all 
my experience did I see anything go like her. At 
the occasional glimpses I got of her through the 
trees I saw she was bathed in blood, but she kept on, 
and I could not gain an inch on her. At last, horse 
and man being utterly exhausted, I tumbled off, 
gave her a long shot in a clear, open place, and 
missed her. She had led me directly from the wagon 
into the mountains, among the klips, boulders, and 
stones—ground that giraffes, when hard pressed, 
always make for, as they have great advantage over 
a horse on such ground. Leading my horse round, 
I turned to take a last look at her, when, to my 
astonishment, she was standing; I re-mounted, mus¬ 
tered a canter, by dint of great persuasion, and, on 
nearing her, she again went away at her long, 
awkward, swinging gallop; but this was her last 
effort, she could only hold on about 100 yards, and 
then stood, and I saw she was mine—so I rode along¬ 
side, letting her walk along to a shady tree, where I 
dropped her dead with a bullet through the heart. 
My after-rider was thrown out entirely, and never 
saw anything of my first broken-legged oile, and, 
there being no water, we could not stop to go on 
the spoor, and I lost her. 
I am now outspanned in a valley, my people dig¬ 
ging at a sand-hole in hopes that water will rise 
u 
