THE ROAN ANTELOPE 
103 
of red-fronted gazelle, I started at dawn for a long day in 
these forests of Kordofan. The country was the usual 
blend of thicker wood alternating with inset stretches of 
prairie and low bush. Almost at the start we struck 
burning spoor of lion, which of course we followed, and 
soon its indications clearly showed that the beast was 
seeking a convenient lie-up. Here the spoor zigzagged 
erratically from bush to bush and anticipation waxed 
keen. Baraka indicated that he smelt the lion; but 
when he began to peer into individual clumps of bush, 
scrutinising their inmost recesses, I thought it time to 
prepare for close-quarters and unshipped the telescope- 
sight. Such moments set one's blood coursing. But an 
anti-climax followed — when my good shikari, suddenly 
poising his spear, hurled it into a dense nabbuk-thorn 
. . . at a hare! 
The bush growing thicker, we eventually lost the 
lion-spoor, though more than once Baraka had displayed 
fine field-craft in picking it up afresh. Presently, having 
shot a gazelle, I sent my second gun-boy to carry the 
game down to the boat, Baraka and I smoking meanwhile 
in the shade. During this brief interlude, the insistent 
chattering of a honey-guide (. Indicator) had induced 
Baraka to follow the importunate bird ; with the result 
that within ioo yards it led him to a store of wild- 
honey. Ten minutes later the “boy” came rushing 
back in terror; he had run right into our lost lion! 
Bad luck that the King of Beasts should thus grant inter¬ 
view to a boy with a gazelle instead of to a man with a 
rifle? We returned at once to the spot, and there beyond 
all doubt-—within 15 yards of the dead gazelle—were 
imprinted on the sandy soil the great pug-marks where 
the lion had quietly quitted his couch. It was a com¬ 
paratively small bush, quite open underneath, that he had 
selected for his lie-up; had we only had the luck to pass 
that way, we could hardly have failed to detect him. As 
ill-chance fell out, we had been searching within 100 yards 
