let  the  gun off, the flame cutting up into the dark and it
making a great noise. Then we were stopped and out from Pop's tent I saw him
coming, thick  and heavy in his dressing-gown,  and  then he  had  his  arms
around  my  shoulders  and said, 'You god damned  bull  fighter', and  I was
clapping him on the back.
     And I said, 'Look at them, Pop'.
     'I saw them,' he said. 'The whole back of the car's full of them.'
     Then I  was holding  P.O.M,  tight, she feeling  very  small inside the
quilted  bigness of  the dressing-gown,  and we were  saying things to  each
other.
     Then Karl came out and I said, 'Hi, Karl'.
     'I'm so damned glad,' he said. 'They're marvellous.'
     M'Cola had the horns down by now  and he and Kamau were holding them so
they could all see them in the light of the fire.
     'What did  you get?'  I asked Karl. 'Just another one of those. What do
you call them?
     Tendalla.'
     'Swell,' I said. I knew I had one no  one could beat and I hoped he had
a good one too. 'How big was he?'
     Oh, fifty-seven,' Karl said.
     'Let's see him,' I said, cold in the pit of my stomach.
     'He's over there,' Pop  said, and we went over. They were the  biggest,
widest, darkest, longest-curling, heaviest, most  unbelievable pair  of kudu
horns in the world. Suddenly, poisoned with envy, I did not want to see mine
again; never, never.
     'That's great,' I said, the words coming out as cheerfully as a  croak.
I tried it again. 'That's swell. How did you get him?'
     'There were  three,'  Karl  said.  'They  were  all  as  big as that. I
couldn't tell which was the biggest. We had a hell of a time. I hit him four
or five times.'
     'He's a wonder,' I said. I was getting so I could do it a little better
but it would not fool anybody yet.
     'I'm awfully glad you got yours,' Karl said. 'They're beauties. I  want
to hear all about them in  the morning. I know you're tired  to-night.  Good
night.'
     He went off, delicate as always, so we could talk about it if we wanted
to.
     'Come on over and have a drink,' I called.
     'No thanks, I think I better go to bed. I've got a sort of headache.'
     'Good night, Karl.'
     'Good night. Good night, Poor Old Mamma.'
     'Good night,' we all said.
     By the fire, with whisky and soda, we  talked and  I told them about it
all.
     'Perhaps they'll find  the bull,' Pop said.  'We'll offer a reward  for
the  horns.  Have them sent to the Game Department. How big  is your biggest
one?'
     'Fifty-two.'
     'Over the curve?'
     'Yes. Maybe he's a little better.'
     'Inches don't  mean anything,'  Pop  said.  'They're  damned  wonderful
kudu.'
     'Sure. But why does he have to beat me so {bloody} badly?'
     'He's  got the luck,'  Pop  said. 'God, what a kudu. I've only seen one
head killed over fifty in my life before. That was up on Kalal.'
     'We knew he had it when  we left the other  camp. The lorry came in and
told us,' P.O.M, said. 'I've spent all my time  praying for you.  Ask Mr. J.
P.'
     'You'll never know  what  it  meant  to  see that  car  come  into  the
firelight  with  those  damned  horns  sticking  out,'  Pop  said.  'You old
bastard.'
     'It's wonderful,' P.O.M, said. 'Let's go and look at them again.'
     'You can always remember how you  shot them. That's what you really get
out of it,' Pop said. 'They're damned wonderful kudu.'
     But  I  was bitter and I was bitter  all  night  long.  In the morning,
though, it was gone. It was all gone and I have never had it again.
     Pop and I were  up  and looking at the heads before breakfast. It was a
grey, overcast morning and cold. The rains were coming.
     'They're three marvellous kudu,' he said.
     'They look all right with the big  one this morning,' I said. They did,
too, strangely enough. I had accepted the big one now  and  was happy to see
him and that Karl  had him. When you  put  them side by side they looked all
right. They really did. They all were big.
     'I'm  glad  you're  feeling  better,'  Pop said.  'I'm  feeling  better
myself.'
     'I'm really glad he has him,' I said truly. 'Mine'll hold me.'
     'We have very primitive emotions,' he said.  'It's impossible not to be
competitive. Spoils everything, though.'
     'I'm all through with  that,' I said. 'I'm all right again. I had quite
a trip, you know.'
     'Did you not,' said Pop.
     'Pop,  what does it  mean when they shake  hands  and get  hold of your
thumb and pull it?'
     'It's on the order of blood brotherhood but a little less formal. Who's
been doing that to you?'
     'Everybody but Kamau.'
     'You're getting to  be a hell of  a fellow,'  Pop said. 'You must be an
old timer out here. Tell me, are you much of a tracker and bird shot?'
     'Go to hell.'
     'M'Cola has been doing that with you too?'
     'Yes.'
     'Well, well,' said Pop. 'Let's get the little  Memsahib and  have  some
breakfast. Not that I'm feeling up to it.'
     'I am,' I said. 'I haven't eaten anything since day before yesterday.'
     'Drank some beer though, didn't you?'
     'Ah, yes.'
     'Beer's a food,' Pop said.
     We got the little Memsahib and old Karl and had a very jolly breakfast.
     A month later P.O.M., Karl, and Karl's wife who had come out and joined
us at Haifa,  were sitting in the  sun  against a stone wall by  the Sea  of
Galilee  eating some lunch and  drinking a  bottle of  wine and watching the
grebes out on the lake. The hills made shadows on the  water, which was flat
calm and rather  stagnant  looking. There were many grebes, making spreading
wakes in the water as they  swam, and I was counting them and  wondering why
they never were mentioned in the Bible. I decided that those people were not
naturalists.
     'I'm not  going  to walk  on it,' Karl said, looking out at  the dreary
lake. 'It's been done already.'
     'You know,' P.O.M, said, 'I can't  remember it. I can't remember Mr. J.
P.'s face. And he's beautiful.
     I  think  about  him  and  think about him  and I can't  see him.  It's
terrible. He isn't  the way he looks in  a photograph. In a little  while  I
won't be able to remember him at all. Already I can't see him.'
     'You must  remember him,' Karl  said to  her. 'I can  remember  him,' I
said. 'I'll write you a piece some time and put him in.'