Part 10 (2/2)

XIV A DAY ON THE ISIOLA

Early one -ere still on the Isiola-we set forth on our horses to ride across the rolling, brush-grown plain Our intention was to proceed at right angles to our own little strearowth of another, which we could diht or ten miles distant Billy ith us, so there were four a-horseback

Behind us trudged the gunbearers, and the syces, and after theled a dozen or fifteen porters

The sun was just up, and the air was only tepid as yet Frorouse of two sorts They were so rouse and prairie chicken that I could with no effort iine myself once more a boy in the coverts of the Middle West

Only before us we could see the stripes of trotting zebra disappearing; and catch the glint of light on the bayonets of the oryx Two giraffes galurass antelope darted froerenuk-oh, far away in an impossible distance Of course we tried to stalk theerenuk we had coazelle about as big as a black-tailed deer His peculiarity is his excessively long neck, a good deal on the giraffe order With it he crops browse above high tide mark of other animals, especially when as often happens he balances cleverly on his hind legs

By means of it also he can, with his body completely concealed, look over the top of ordinary cover and see you long before you have made out his inconspicuous little head Then he departs He seems to have a lamentable lack of healthy curiosity about you In that respect he should take lessons frooni After that you can follow hilimpses at three or four hundred yards

We reround was rather soft, scattered with round rocks the size of aholes

”Cheerful country to ride over at speed,” remarked Billy Later in the day we had occasion to remember that statement

The plains led us ever on First would be a band of scattered brush growing singly and in srass swale; then perhaps a low, long hill with s Ten thousand things kept us interested Gaame of all sizes and descriptions The rounded ears of jackals pointed at us frorass Hundreds of birds balanced or fluttered about us, birds of all sizes froround hornbill to the littlest huated sky of Africa the broad-winged carrion hunters and birds of prey wheeled In all our stay on the Isiola we had not seen a single rhino track, so we rode quite care free and happy

Finally, across a glade, not over a hundred and fifty yards a a solitary bull oryx standing under a bush B wanted an oryx We discussed this one idly He looked to be a decent oryx, but nothing especial However, he offered a very good shot; so B, after some hesitation, decided to take it It proved to be by far the best speci thirty-six and three fourths inches! Almost immediately after, two of the rather rare striped hyenas leaped frorass and departed rapidly over the top of a hill We opened fire, and F dropped one of them By the tih in the heavens, and it was getting hot

Accordingly we abandoned that still distant river and swung away in a wide circle to return to cah noon and the heat of the day B had succeeded in drawing a prize, one of the Grevy's or ed themselves with that, while we sat under the rather scanty shade of a small thorn tree and had lunch

Here we had a favourable chance to observe that very co of the carrion birds Within five minutes after the stoop of the first vulture above the carcass, the sky immediately over that one spot was fairly darkened with thees-or as ducks used to be in California All sizes were there fronified vultures and les The small fry flopped and scolded, and rose and fell in a dense nified pace to and fro through the grass all about As far as the eye could penetrate the blue, it couldwith half bent wings Beloe could see uncertainly through the shi+e the bent forms of the men

We ate and waited; and after a little we dozed I akened suddenly by a tre roar, like the sound of a not too distant waterfall The group ofburdens

And like pluht down fros at the lastsound that had awakened me

A wide spot in the shi+round I arose and walked over,the meat It took me probably about two minutes to reach the place where the zebra had been killed Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the great birds were standing idly about; a dozen or so were flapping and scrahty co clumsily, aardly, reluctantly A traer bones, picked absolutely clean, was all that remained! In less than two ood work!”

We started the men on to camp with the meat, and ourselves rested under the shade The day had been a full and interesting one; but we considered it as finished Remained only the hot journey back to caain and rode on slowly The sun was very strong and a heavy shi+ht of so It looked like a crow-or, better, a scare-crow-crippled, half flying, half running, aving wings or arht it up or let it drop As atched, it developed, and we ed black overcoat, running zigzag through the bushes in our direction

The moment we identified it we spurred our horses forward As field from my left hand and forced the 405 Winchester upon me Clever Memba Sasa! He no more than we kneas up, but shrewdly concluded that whatever it was it needed a heavy gun

As we galloped to ged, raggedy youth e had nicknas, the fact that his breeches hite, short and baggy, and because he kept his entire head shaved close He called himself Fundi, which means The Expert, a sufficient indication of his confidence in hi on his safari stick, panting heavily, the sweat running off his face in splashes ”Si, easy lope ahead of us We pulled down to a trot and followed him

Lion

At the end of a half mile we made out a man up a tree Fundi, out of breath, stopped short and pointed to this man The latter, as soon as he had seen us, commenced to scramble down We spurred forward to find out where the lions had been last seen

Then Billy covered herself with glory by seeing them first She apprised us of that fact with so, yellow bodies of two of thee of the brush about three hundred yards away With a hoop we tore after thean a wild ride Do you re? Before long we closed in near enough to catch occasional gli At that ht for a ain, and thought I caught frage Then ed to holdto the reins Did you ever try to get on a somewhat demoralized horse in a frantic hurry, when all your friends were getting farther away everyin the fun? I began to understand perfectly B's remarks of a moment before However, on I scraed in and out of bushes, and around and over holes Every few li lions, and then ould let out a yell Also every few o down in a heap, and would scramble up and curse, and reun, and belonged a little in the rear anyway, but was coer for all that

My own horse had the legs of the others quite easily, and for that reason I was ahead far enough to see the ht of five lions sideways on, all in a row, standing in the grass gazing at nity I wheeled e, and yelled to the others to hurry up While I sat there, they moved slowly off one after the other, so that by the tione We now had no difficulty in running into thehtthe lions, and at about one hundred yards range One by one they began to leave as before, very leisurely and haughtily, until a single old reat round head peering over the top of the grass