smoke float up into the air, and one of the vilderbeeste below rolled
over on his back, kicking and plunging furiously. Thereon the whole herd
of buck turned and came thundering towards them, stretched in a long
line across the wide veldt; the springbuck first, then the blesbuck,
looking for all the world like a herd of great bearded goats, owing to
their peculiar habit of holding their long heads down as they galloped.
Behind and mixed up with them were the vilderbeeste, who twisted and
turned, and jumped into the air as though they had gone clean off their
heads and were next second going clean on to them. It is very difficult,
owing to his extraordinary method of progression, to distinguish one
part of a galloping vilderbeeste from another; now it is his horns, now
his tail, and now his hoofs that present themselves to the watcher's
bewildered vision, and now again they all seem to be mixed up together.
On came the great herd, making the ground shake beneath their footfall:
and after them galloped the mounted Boers, from time to time jumping
off their horses to fire a shot into the line of game, which generally
resulted in some poor animal being left sprawling on the ground, whereon
the sportsmen would remount and continue the chase.

Presently the buck were within range of some of the guns in the carts,
and a regular fusillade began. About twenty blesbuck turned and came
straight past John, at a distance of forty yards. Springing to the
ground he fired both barrels of his "Express" at them as they tore
along--alas and alas! without touching them. The first bullet struck
under their bellies, the second must have shaved their backs. Reloading
rapidly, he fired again at about two hundred yards' range, and this time
one fell to his second barrel. But he knew that it was a chance shot: he
had fired at the last buck, and he had killed one ten paces in front
of it. In fact this sort of shooting is extremely difficult till the
sportsman understands it. The inexperienced hand firing across a line of