But a nearer view showed me
nothing more than a huge wart-hog. As I
wanted the tusks, which I noticed were very fine
ones, I fired but only badly hipped him: so I
ran up as fast as I could and at ten yards
fired again. This time I missed him entirely,
and was puzzled to account for my failure until
I looked at my back sight and found that by
some accident it had got raised and that I had
the 200-yards sight up. On rectifying this,
another shot quickly put the wounded animal
out of pain.
Still my day's sport was not yet over. While
rambling back through the trees I caught sight
of a graceful-looking antelope in the distance,
and on cautiously approaching closer saw that
it was an impala. My stalk was crowned with
success, the beautiful animal being bagged
without much trouble; and on reaching my prize I
was delighted to find that its horns were much
above the average. On another occasion I was
fortunate enough to get a successful snapshot of
an impala just after it had been shot by a friend,
and the photograph gives a very good idea of
what mine was like.
As it was now growing late, I made all haste
back to where I had left Mahina skinning the lion,
but to my astonishment he was nowhere to be
seen. I fired several shots and shouted myself
hoarse, all without response; and the only
conclusion I could come to was that he had
returned to the camp at the temporary bridge. I
accordingly pushed on, reaching home long after
dark; and there I found Mahina safe and sound,
with the lion's skin already pegged out to dry, so
that I could not find it in my heart to give him
the severe scolding he deserved for having
returned without me. Next morning I packed
up my trophies and returned to my work
at railhead. On my way back I happened to
meet one of the other engineers, who called
out, "Hallo! I hear you have got a fine
line."
My thoughts being full of my adventures of
the day before, I answered: "Yes, I did; but
how on earth did you hear of it?"
"Oh!" he said, "Reynolds told me."
"Good heavens," I replied, "why, he left before
I shot it."
"Shot?" he exclaimed, "whatever do you
mean?"
"Didn't you say," I asked, "that you heard
I had got a fine lion?"
"No, no," was his reply; "a fine line for the
temporary bridge over the river."
We both laughed heartily at the
misunderstanding, and when he saw my trophy, which was being
carried by my man just behind me, he agreed
that it was quite fine enough to monopolise my
thoughts and prevent me from thinking of
anything else.
