WOULD-BE SHIKARIS 111 ing shikaris, and each with decided opinions and considerable jealousy of the other— rushed to me and informed me that " Abu Ooruf " were crossing the river - bed. Unfortunately, both accompanied me the short distance, and, in spite of my previous injunctions as to silence, at the critical point began to dispute as to whether this spot or a farther one should be the vantage-ground. The high tones of the dispute, and the necessary vehemence of my objurgations, gave me no choice, for on looking over the bank the antelope were on the move 300 yards away.

Bachit was right, for Fadl el Mullah was obsessed with the idea that the eye of a crocodile at a quarter-mile's range was quite enough mark for a moderate gun. The range of my foot as a weapon of offence I hoped would disabuse him.

Opposite, in the blue distance, was the first forerunner—if so one can call such a stationary object as a hill—of the Abyssinian highlands : a solitary granite eminence looking quite out of place, and the sunset shone red on its boulders.

I woke during the night on my couch under the tamarind-tree, and thought to myself what comfort may be in the wilds. So snug was one's bed, so peaceful and quiet the night, that disturbance and danger seemed distant as famine and cold.

My thoughts were broken most rudely ; from very close quarters there sounded the impatient and irritable voice of a lion, whose tone was quite different from others we had heard.