Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

THUS FAR AND NO FARTHER 273
greater hunter than his master. Day by day, it would
go off on its own, lurk on the edge of the plain and, with
the spring of a panther, drag down an antelope, a devoted
gift to his master. This entente cordiale, between man
and dog, went on and on, until the neighbours envied both
man and dog ; so one day—dark dies memorahilis—they
pounced on the hunter, claiming damages for a slight
indiscretion on the animal's part— breach of dog-etiquette,
I mean, not man's. Stealing eggs, nothing less, was the
accusation. Kesult : the culprit pug was condemned to
have his ears cropped, and with the disappearance of the
devoted dog's ears there also disappeared utterly any
devoted gifts of game. Knotty point : When he lost his
ears, did he lose his scent for game ? Answer : No, not
at all ; he went still at it, was still successful in the chase,
but—but snubbed his master for permitting them to crop
ears. Did he eat his captured game then? Certainly
not ; how could a dog with such a prohibition bred in the
bone, how could it dare such a deed ?
This, then, is what it did do—and here it is we tumble
plump into mystery. Adjacent to the townlet is a wild
bog into which the Lualaba lavishes its waters, the dense
tangle being hopeless and shutting in the water from view.
Here it is the dog discovers a hole for hiding his trophies.
Day by day (it all came out afterwards) he revengefully
rammed down that hole his spoils of the chase, a real case
—if you but change one word— of " a dog in the manger " ;
he didn't eat the meat himself out of canine honour, and
he slyly saw to it that nobody else would. Then came