Page 144 - Adventures in Africa

Harry would drop down and frighten them away
before they had got near enough to enable me to

take a sure aim.
I was in as good a position as I could desire, for,
though the bush effectually concealed mef I could see

them clearly, I dared not, however, move my rifle in
the least degree, for fear it should touch the leaves

and make the animals suspicious, “ Do not fire until
they begin to move away, I want to get them up close
to me,” said Harry, in a whisper.

The animals still, in spite of the danger, came on,
until they wTere not twenty yards off. At length, it

seemed to me, by the way they moved their ears, that
they were on the point of starting.
I fired, the buck dropped on his fore-legs, and at

the same instant Harry threw himself on his feet, lifted
his rifle and fired at the doe before she had got ten

paces off. Down she also came utterly helpless, and
was quickly put out of her suffering by Harry, The
buck instinctively attempted to defend himself with

his horns, but seizing* one of them, I deprived him of
existence.

W e had good reason to be satisfied with the result
oftHarry's experiment. He told me that not only the
ourebis but several other deer, if attracted in the same

way by their suspicions or curiosity being aroused,
can be thus shot.
W e lost no time in cutting open our deer, so as to

lighten the loads, and the better to preserve the meat.
Each was as much as a man could carry on his

shoulders. W e were unwilling, however, to leave
any part behind. Believing that we could carry