Part 7 (2/2)
”You'd better have a shot gun, Holt,” said Brian, as we started ”I always use one in thick bush; it's all close shooting”
He handed me a double Number Twelve bore, of first-rate make and poise, and kept in first-rate order too, and soes
”You won't use all those You'll be lucky if you get two fair and square shots,” he remarked
”Good luck, Mr Holt,” called out Beryl after us
I began to feel nervous I was only an ordinary shot, and of this form of sport was, of course, utterly without experience--and said as land, don't you, Mr Holt?” said George, in a tone that made me wish I could turn him into one of the fowl aforesaid Could it really be that this i pup was Beryl's brother--or Brian's too, for the matter of that?
We cantered down the valley, then struck up a lateral spur, and rounding it ca far up into the hillside--its side black with dense bush, the _boerboen_ and plumed euphorbia, and half a dozen other varieties whose naet to heel!” cried Brian, apostrophising the rough-haired dogs which had followed, all excited, at our horses' heels
”George, take Mr Holt on to the opening above the little krantz You knohere to post hiet one anywhere Then come back to me”
We made a bit of a circuit, and some twenty minutes later found ourselves in a little open space, surrounded on three sides by dense bush, while the fourth seeround Here I was carefully posted in the combined cover of an ant-heap and a small mimosa
”That's where they always break cover,” whispered George ”Man, but you ”
Left alone, my nerves were all athrill with excitement, and I believebush, , then, becoreen-blue streaks, their note changed to one of alaronisingly Heavens! what if I should shoot badly, and miss? What a fool I should look--and this was, in a way, my _debut_!
The space the quarry would have to cross was about twenty yards Could I stop it in that distance? No, I was sure I could not I was feeling far too shaky, far too eager--a nervous condition invariably fatal, at any rate in my own case, to effective execution
The silence settled down around me, broken only by the occasional note of a bird Then I started What was that? The yapping of a dog, then another, then a chorus of excited yelps; and as it drew rapidly nearer I realised that they were on the track of soe had indicated, it ca rush A noble antelope leapt out into the open Its pointed, slightly spiral horns and dilated eye, the alraphed in er, and-- it shot across the open, and my left barrel spoke, a fraction of a second before it disappeared over the declivity But in that fraction of a second I had seen the convulsive start, the unmistakable squirm, and could have hurrahed aloud
I rees
Another s appeared hot foot on the scent, and close behind thee
”Hallo, Mr Holt Where's the buck?” cried that youth, with a derisive grin ”Man, but we drove hiht over there,” pointing to the brow of the declivity
”So it seeain in a hurry”
”Well, Holt? No luck, eh?” said Brian, appearing on the scene
”Well, it depends on whether you look at it froned coolness ”If the latter, you're right”
”Eh? Why--”
So of a clas, and the half bellow, half screaht for his life We did not pause atheher up--they plunged down, I following, leaping from rock to rock There lay ely s which were leaping and snarling frantically around hih,” said Brian, calling off the dogs ”Put another shot into him, Holt--forward this time”
I did, and the ani_! but he's a fine ra the beast's throat ”You didn't hit him by accident, Mr Holt, hey?”
”Bad accident for the buck, anyway,” said Brian with a dry laugh ”Well done, Holt I congratulate you Thirteen-inch horns! We'll have them done up for you as a trophy of your first bushbuck”