Almost
every evening the thunderstorms made gorgeous piled effects in the
distance. At night the lions and hyenas roared or howled, and some of
the tiny fever owls impudently answered them back.
Various adventures came our way, some of which have been elsewhere
narrated. Here we killed the very big buffalo that nearly got Billy.[29]
In addition, we collected two more specimens of the Neuman's
hartebeeste, and two Chanler's reed buck.
But Mavrouki's glowing predictions as to roan were hardly borne out by
facts. According to him the mountains simply swarmed with them--he had
seen thirty-five in one day, etc. Of course we had discounted this, but
some old tracks had to a certain extent borne out his statement.
Lunch time one day, however, found us on top of the highest ridge. Here
we hunted up a bit of shade, and spent two hours out of the noon sun.
While we lay there the sky slowly overcast, so that when we aroused
ourselves to go on, the dazzling light had softened. As time was getting
short, we decided to separate. Memba Sasa and Mavrouki were to go in one
direction, while C., Kongoni and I took the other.
Before we started I remarked that I was offering two rupees for the
capture of a roan.
We had not gone ten minutes when Kongoni turned his head cautiously and
grinned back at us.
"My rupees," said he.
A fine buck roan stood motionless beneath a tree in the valley below us.
Pages:
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294