hted bucks but
got no shot. Gaining the top of the kloof we saw more bucks--out of
range. We passed over the shoulder of the mountain into another glen,
and skirted the top of a precipice. While descending some slopes at an
angle of I know not what, the use of our cruppers became strikingly
apparent. I began, for the first time in my life, to feel anxiety as to
the strength of a horse's tail. In going up such places the saddle
girths were severely tried, but the mane kept one from slipping down
one's perpendicular animal.

Coming to a comparatively level stretch we sank into a silently
reflective and forgetful mood, while the rain-drops dribbled down our
noses, sopped from our mackintoshes to our saddles, whence they
re-ascended, through the capillary influence of garments, to our necks,
and soon equalised our humidity.

"Look out!" shouted Edwards, suddenly. We all obeyed, and saw a brown
buck labouring up a slope so steep that running was out of the question.
I stuck my heels into my steed and faced him at the slope. He took it.
He would have taken the side of a house, I think, if told to. But he
gasped with the frantic nature of his efforts. I _felt_ as if he were
leaping up the slope, kangaroo fashion, on his hind-legs. On reaching
the top, the antelope was observed disappearing in the distance. It was
of no use weeping. Rain would have washed the tears away.

"Look out!" again shouted our host; "get off!"

We all obeyed, cocked our guns, and gazed. A herd of antelopes! just
visible in the mist. We all fired, and missed.

"Very mysterious," muttered one of our number,--I forget which.

We loaded hastily, but not quickly. Our guns were muzzle-loaders, and
rain does not facilitate loading. In trying to force a bullet down, my
ramrod slipped, and I cut my knuckles severely.

"You've drawn first blood, anyhow," savagely muttered one of us,--I
forget who.

We mounted again, and let me tell you that mounting on a steep hillside
in a long wet mackintosh with a big rifle, bleeding knuckles, and a
heavy heart, is difficult as well as disagreeable.

To increase our enjoyment, Edwards again shouted, "Get off!" We did so
with more than military obedience, and I saw a buck standing not more
than a hundred yards in front of me. I gave him the rifled barrel. He
hopped. Then the shot barrel. He winced and fled, but presently
stopped and lay down. Edwards ran towards him, kneeled, fired, and
broke hi