CHAPTER VII.
STALKING A KOODOO—HARRY AND JACK AMONG ELANDS—CAUGHT
IN A PITFALL.
I was bowing myself away when Mrs. Roberts, with a gracious smile, said:
"I am greatly pleased to have met you, and if it should be in your way to pass near our encampment it would give us pleasure to see you."
I thanked her for the invitation, and said it would give me pleasure to accept it. Then I made my adieus and turned back to the tree where I had separated from Harry and Jack, they going in pursuit of the elands and I starting out on foot for buffaloes.
Mirogo sent the Kafirs to skin both the buffaloes and bring in the horns and tongue of the big one and the meat of the yearling. The Kafirs reported that Harry and Jack had disappeared in pursuit of the elands; the last seen of them they had crossed a ridge to the south three or four miles away. I knew they would have a long ride for it, and if I set out in pursuit it would be a good while before I could overtake them. Away to the east, half a mile or so, the Kafirs reported some koodoos, and I thought it would be a good plan to stalk them. So, leaving Mirogo and Kalil behind, I took my small rifle, with a beltful of ammunition suited to it, and away I started.
There is an old saying that you do not hunt ducks with a brass band, and you do not hunt koodoo with a tracker and a gun-bearer. Like all animals of the antelope kind, the koodoo is very shy and also very sharp-sighted. To stalk him you must do a great deal of creeping on the ground, and take advantage of every bush, tree, rock, ant-hill, or anything else that rises more than six inches from the ground. It is far easier to approach an elephant than a koodoo; in fact, it is a complete science to be an accomplished hunter of this animal or any of his African kindred. One of each herd is generally on the watch, and they seem to select him for his superior eyesight, hearing, and powers of smelling. You must study the wind down to a single point of the compass, take your bearings with the utmost care, and then creep along very much as a cat creeps after a mouse before she makes her spring. If the animals see you there is no use following them; turn right about, go in the contrary direction, and circle around until you come in on the opposite side, provided the wind will permit you to do so.
I have heard old hunters say that they were perfectly satisfied if they got one good chance in a day to shoot a koodoo. Knowing this, the reader will understand how anxious I was to succeed in my hunt, and that I was willing to put myself to a great deal of inconvenience and trouble in the hope of bagging my game.
The ground was quite open where the koodoos were, but within half a mile of them there was a stretch of scattered bushes. I made for these bushes till I got around a point that was nearest to the herd and also was off-wind, and then I began the snake and cat business to my best abilities. I utilized every little obstruction on the ground, and when there was none I dragged myself along by means of my elbows, pushing my gun in front of me and taking care not to get dirt in the muzzle of it. There were perhaps a dozen koodoos in the herd, and one fine old buck was posted as sentinel. He kept turning slowly around, surveying all points of the compass; and whenever his head was in my direction I lay as still as the ground on which I rested. When he turned away I slipped forward a length or two, and sometimes, by great good fortune, half a dozen lengths.
The sun was hot—not only hot, but blazingly so. Whenever my hand touched the ironwork of my gun it seemed as if it would raise a blister; and with my back exposed to the rays of the orb of day, I felt as though I were standing before the furnace of an iron-foundry. The perspiration poured out of me, and had it not been for my determination to bag a koodoo I should have abandoned the chase and gone back to camp.
It was not only the heat that came near breaking me up on that hunt, but a snake, and a poisonous one at that. As I was dragging myself along over the ground, imagine my horror at seeing a serpent about six feet long lying directly in front of me and not more than three yards away! I came very near springing up and jumping backward, which of course would have ended the koodoo-hunt then and there; but I restrained myself. My next thought was to shoot the reptile, but to do so would have been equally fatal to my sport.