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But the young hunter saw that it would be imprudent to fire at them there, as it would prevent them from returning to the vley; so he restrained himself, and along with the others remained watching the quaggas all regarding them with a degree of interest which they had never before felt in looking at a drove of these animals.
Hans had taken his gun and followed them in a great hurry, telling Trüey and Jan to keep in the tree, and not come down until he returned. He would be gone only a very little while, and they needn't fear. This was all they knew. They could not even tell what direction he had taken. He went by the lower end of the vley; but soon the bushes hid him from their view, and they saw no more of him.
It was nothing unusual to her to see the pretty creatures playing about the branches, or entering the long vertical tunnels that led upward to their nests nothing unusual for Truey to listen for hours to their sweet twittering, or watch their love-gambols around the borders of the vley.
Two large animals appeared through the darkness, evidently approaching the vley. "Quaggas!" whispered Willem, as he strained his eyes to assure himself of their species. "Yes," answered Hendrik. "Let us knock them over. They're not much good, but it will serve to wake us up."
But although I decided not to move the wagon until the morrow, I was not disposed to remain personally inactive; for I had observed that about two miles to the eastward the river flowed through a slight depression, which had thus become converted into a water vley, or wide sheet of shallow water, where I thought it not improbable that I might find a few widgeon to afford a welcome change from the buck meat that had now become our almost continuous fare.
Hans had taken his gun and followed them in a great hurry, telling Truey and Jan to keep in the tree, and not come down until he returned. He would be gone only a very little while, and they needn't fear. This was all they knew. They could not even tell what direction he had taken. He went by the lower end of the vley; but soon the bushes hid him from their view, and they saw no more of him.
They were all too hungry to be fastidious, and, without a word of criticism, they got through their dinner. Hans then commenced relating the history of his day's adventure. "Well," began Hans, "you had not been gone more than an hour, when a herd of wildebeests was seen approaching the vley.
Without halting, he headed in the direction of the vley already mentioned; and kept on towards it, his object evidently being to reach the water. This little lake, of course, owed its existence to the spring though it was full two hundred yards from the latter and about the same from the great tree.
At some distance off it was wooded, but near the vley a grassy plain lay spread before the eye like a green meadow. The eyes of the hunter were turned outward on this plain, and just then his glance fell upon a troop of animals crossing the open ground, and advancing towards the vley.
There was no happier group in all Africa than stood at that moment upon the shore of that lonely little vley. The field-cornet, then, had resolved upon turning hunter by profession a hunter of elephants; and it was a pleasant reflection to think, that this occupation promised, not only exciting sport, but great profit.
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