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In a few minutes the three hunters had lost sight of one another, Karl and Caspar proceeding round the lake by opposite sides, but both keeping under cover of the bushes; while Ossaroo wended his way along the bottom of the cliff thinking he might have a better chance in that direction. The game which Caspar expected first might fall in his way was the "kakur," or barking-deer.
Whilst wandering about, however, we chanced to see a number of negroes turn out and chase down an antelope. It was a very small rufous-brown animal, much about the size and shape of the Kakur deer of the Himalayas; but what struck me most was, the peculiarity of its having, unlike all hitherto known African species, four points of horns.
But it was no fancy: for the moment after he not only saw the twigs move, but behind the bush to which they belonged he could just make out a darkish-coloured object. It could be nothing else than the body of the kakur.
Tidings of the flight of Dost Mahomed reached Keane on the 3d, at Sheikabad, where he had halted to concentrate; and Outram volunteered to head a pursuing party, to consist of some British officers as volunteers, some cavalry and some Afghan horse. Hadji Khan Kakur, the earliest traitor of his race, undertook to act as guide.
The animal stirred not; but instead almost simultaneous with the click of his gun, and as if it had been its echo another click fell upon the hunter's ear, apparently coming from the spot on which the kakur was standing!
Acting upon this idea, he squatted close behind the bush, and commenced barking, as near as he could, a la kakur. It was some considerable time before he heard any response to cheer him, or observed any sign that indicated the presence or proximity of an animal.
Caspar had never entered this glade and he had gone through it several times without seeing kakur browsing upon the grassy turf, or lying in the shade of the bushes that grew around its edge. It was but fair to presume, therefore, that on that morning, as upon others, the glade would furnish him with this species of game.
Again the barks of the kakur came back upon the breeze repeated serially, and so resembling his own, that had Caspar not known that they proceeded from the throat of a deer, he might have fancied them to be echoes. He did not allow many seconds to elapse before barking again, and again, with an equal straining at allurement. This time, to the surprise of the young hunter, there was no response.
This the kakur sends forth, whenever it suspects the presence of an enemy in its neighbourhood; and keeps repeating it at short intervals, until it believes either that the danger has been withdrawn, or withdraws itself from the danger.
The bark is very easily imitated by the human voice; and after a single lesson, with Ossaroo as instructor, not only could Caspar do the decoy to a nicety, but even Karl, who only overheard the shikaree instructing his pupil, was able to produce a sound precisely similar. Present hunger prompted Caspar to go in search of the kakur, as that would be the game most likely to turn up first.