quite failed to get near them, and just
as after long and cautious labour, they would be almost within shot,
away would scamper the herd, in Indian file, and clumsy and ungainly as
they were in their movements, all attempts to cut them off utterly
failed. Convinced at last of the impossibility, Hughes followed the
advice given him by the Matabele, and, dismounting, concealed himself
behind a clump of trees, Masheesh, Luji, and others of the hunters who
had now found them, making a long sweep to drive the antelope towards
him. This at last proved successful.

A herd of hartebeest came cantering along, the leader pausing within ten
paces of the clump where he lay hid. The moment sufficed, as a ball
crashed through his skull, and he fell heavily, stone dead. The herd
instantly turned to fly, but not before another shot had bowled over a
second deer.

The buck was a noble animal, measuring seven feet ten inches from the
nose to the base of the tail, and carrying a splendid pair of horns, one
foot ten inches in height; the second being a female, and consequently
much smaller in every respect. The deer were slung across the horses
and sent to camp, where they proved a most seasonable supply, and after
a rest under the trees the hunters prepared to follow. Before them lay
a green rise, hardly to be called a hill, and yet high enough to conceal
the country beyond. Masheesh, no longer dressed in his savage finery,
but quite nude save a hide girded round his loins, was stalking on some
paces in advance, the soldier following and looking with a covetous eye
at the troops of deer which he could not approach. Suddenly, Masheesh
threw himself flat on his face, as though he had been shot, motioning to
the other to do the same. Cautiously and noiselessly the two dragged
themselves up the rise, and peeping over its crest, saw spread out
before them a rich undulating valley, the grass land broken here and
there by groves of mimosa trees, a small river wandering through it on
its way to join the Limpopo. The country of the Batonga lay mapped
before them, while far to the westward rose the hills of the Drakenburgh
range.

Feeding, not five hundred yards from the crest of the rise, was a herd
of strange animals. The head and breast had the appearance of buffalo
on a small scale, the horns of the males being enormous and very
dangerous looking. Twisting spirally downwards when starting from the
head, they then curved upwards l