This went on for a mile or two, the giraffe stopping every now and then for a rest, and on receiving another shot, making off again. Finally it forced its way into a patch of thick bush interlaced with a large number of prize specimens of the terrible wait-a-bit thorn. I did not attempt to penetrate this bush in like manner, but went round it instead, seeking for a more favourable entrance. While doing so, I heard the familiar crash of a falling body, and being then satisfied that my quarry had at last succumbed, I attempted to retrace my footsteps. In the excitement of the chase I had carelessly neglected to take any bearings, leaving that part of the business to the men who accompanied me when I dashed across the river. When I turned to speak to them, I found that not one of them was near. The long chase not being to their liking, they had turned and sneaked back long before. Two little A’kikuyu boys had alone remained, so I directed them to take me back to camp by the shortest route. They protested they did not know the way, however, so I was compelled to take the lead and to try to find it myself. It was fast growing dusk, and as I hurried on I pictured to myself the discomforts attendant on a night passed in the fork of a tree. I was once lost in the bush for twenty-four hours while after sable antelope in Mashonaland, and I had no wish to repeat the experience. After an hour of climbing and scrambling, I once more reached the river, but alas! at a point far below our camp. The river at this place flowed through numerous narrow channels between great boulders of pink gneiss, and it seemed as if there would be a possibility of crossing by jumping from rock to rock, though it was rather a dangerous proceeding, the rocks being rendered as smooth and polished as glass by the constant action of the water. However, I stripped and attempted the crossing. When I say I stripped, I mean that I removed my boots and socks, as I had not much else on in the way of clothing; a thin cotton vest, and a coloured cloth worn petticoat-wise, completing as airy and cool a costume as one could wish for in that beautiful climate. I slipped and fell once or twice, though fortunately I sustained no injury, and half an hour later I reached camp, tired but happy, and dined sumptuously on a guinea-fowl. At daylight the following morning we sent the men to cut up the giraffe; but they returned in an hour, saying that they were unable to find it. Judging from the way they complained of the other one I shot, I do not think they were over-anxious to do so.