thin a fringe of mimosa
trees and of red-flowering aloes near the river; had eaten lunch, smoked
a pipe and issued necessary orders to the men, C. and I set about the
serious work of getting an appropriate bait in an appropriate place.

The plains stretched straight away from the river bank to some
indefinite and unknown distance to the south. A low range of mountains
lay blue to the left; and a mantle of scrub thornbush closed the view to
the right. This did not imply that we could see far straight ahead, for
the surface of the plain rose slowly to the top of a swell about two
miles away. Beyond it reared a single butte peak at four or five times
that distance.

We stepped from the fringe of red aloes and squinted through the dancing
heat shimmer. Near the limit of vision showed a very faint glimmering
whitish streak. A newcomer to Africa would not have looked at it twice:
nevertheless, it could be nothing but zebra. These gaudily marked beasts
take queer aspects even on an open plain. Most often they show pure
white; sometimes a jet black; only when within a few hundred yards does
one distinguish the stripes. Almost always they are very easily made
out. Only when very distant and in heat shimmer, or in certain half
lights of evening, does their so-called "protective colouration" seem to
be in working order, and even then they are always quite visible to the
least expert hunter's scrutiny.

It is not difficult to kill a zebra, though sometimes it has to be done
at a fairly long range. If all you want is meat for the porters, the
matter is simple enough. But when you require bait for a lion, that; is
another affair entirely. In the first place, you must be able to stalk
within a hundred yards of your kill without being seen; in the second
place, you must provide two or three good lying-down places for your
prospective trophy within fifteen yards of the carcass-and no more than
two or three; in the third place, you must judge the direction of the
probable morning wind, and must be able to approach from leeward. It is
evidently pretty good luck to find an accommodating zebra in just such
a spot. It is a matter of still greater nicety to drop him absolutely in
his tracks. In a case of porters' meat it does not make any particular
difference if he runs a hundred yards before he dies. With lion bait
even fifty yards makes all the difference in the world.

C. and I talked it over and resolved to press Scallywattamus into