a forefoot into a hole and turned a com¬ 
plete somersault, almost wrenching out 
his shoulder. Sir Alfred was hurled off 
head over heels, but even as he rolled over, 
clutching his rifle, he twisted himself round 
to his knees, and took one last shot at the 
flying giraffe. This left Kermit alone and 
he galloped hard on the giraffe’s heels, fir¬ 
ing again and again with his Winchester. 
Finally his horse became completely done 
out and fell behind; whereupon Kermit 
jumped off, and being an excellent long-dis¬ 
tance runner, ran after the giraffe on foot 
for more than a mile. But he did not 
need to shoot again. The great beast had 
been mortally wounded and it suddenly 
slowed down, halted, and fell over dead. 
As a matter of curiosity we kept the Win¬ 
chester bullets both from Kermit’s giraffe 
and from mine. I made a point of keeping 
as many as possible of the bullets with 
which tbe different animals were slain so as 
to see just what was done by the different 
types of rifles we had with us. 
When I reached camp I found that 
Heller had already started. Next morn¬ 
ing I rode down to see him and found 
him hard at work with the skins; but as it 
would take him two or three days to finish 
them and put them in condition for trans¬ 
port, we decided that the safari should 
march back to the Potha camp, and that 
from thence we would send Percival’s ox 
wagon to bring back to the camp all the 
skins, Heller and his men accompanying 
him. The plan was carried out, and the 
following morning we shifted the big camp 
as proposed. 
Heller, thus left behind, came near hav¬ 
ing an unpleasant adventure. He slept in 
his own tent, and his Wkamba skinners 
slept under the fly not far off. One night 
they let the fires die down and were roused 
at midnight by hearing the grunting of a 
hungry lion apparently not a dozen yards 
off in the darkness. Heller quickly lit 
his lantern and sat up with his shot-gun 
loaded with bird shot, the only weapon 
he had with him. The lion walked round 
and round the tent, grunting at intervals. 
Then, after some minutes of suspense, he 
drew off. While the grunting had been 
audible, not a sound came from the tent of 
the Wkambas, who all cowered under their 
blankets in perfect silence. But once he 
had gone there was a great chattering, and 
667 
