n. The last quarter of a mile had to be negotiated in the
open, but I found that by lying flat down on my pony's back I was
completely hidden from the advancing herd by an intervening swell in
the ground. In this manner I managed to get unobserved to the lee of my
hillock, where I dismounted, threw the reins over a stump, and crawled
stealthily but as quickly as I could to the top. I was in great doubt
as to whether I should be in time or not, but on peering, hatless, over
the crest, I was overjoyed to find the whole herd just below me. One of
the eland, not twenty yards off, saw me at once, and stood still to
gaze at me in astonishment. It was a female, however, so I took no
notice of her, but looked round to see if my great bull were anywhere
near. Yes, there he was; he had passed the spot where I lay, but was
not more than forty yards off, moving in the same leisurely fashion as
when I first saw him. An instant later, he noticed the general alarm
caused by my appearance, and stopped and turned half round to see what
was the matter. This gave me my opportunity, so I fired, aiming behind
the shoulder. The way in which he jumped and kicked on feeling the lead
told me I had hit him hard, and I got two more bullets into him from
the magazine of my .303 before he managed to gain the shelter of a
neighbouring thicket and was lost to sight. In the meantime the whole
herd had thundered off at full gallop, disappearing in a few minutes in
a cloud of dust.

I was confident that there would be little difficulty in finding the
wounded eland, and on Landaalu coming up--which, by the way, he did
almost immediately, for he was a wonderful goer--we started to make a
rough search through the thicket. Owing to the growing darkness,
however, we met with no success, so I decided to return to camp, which
was many miles away, and to resume the quest at daybreak the following
morning. It turned out that we were even further from home than I
thought, and black night came upon us before we had covered a quarter
of the distance. Fortunately the invaluable Landaalu had discovered a
good crossing over the swamp, so we were able to press on at a good
pace without losing any time in overcoming the obstacle. After an hour
or so of hard travelling, we were delighted to see a rocket go up,
fired by my friends to guide us on our way. Such a sight is wonderfully
cheering when one is far away from camp, trudging along in the inky
darkness and none too c