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Updated: June 11, 2025
Next morning, they were on the move before daybreak, and hastening forward with all possible speed. Hendrik, Arend, and Hans accompanied Macora with some reluctance, partly because they believed that flight was no longer necessary. "Never mind," urged Groot Willem, to encourage them. "It will only last two days longer, and we are going to a part of the country we have not yet visited."
"Ever since noon," was Willem's reply. "And how much longer would you have stayed, had we not found you?" "Until either this giraffe or I should have died," answered Willem. "I should not have abandoned it before." "But supposing you had died first, how would it have been then?" asked Arend. "No doubt," replied Willem, "something would very soon have taken me away.
This seemed an excellent plan, yet so simple that Arend was somewhat surprised he had not thought of it before. Without difficulty he succeeded in pouring a double quantity of powder into the barrel; and, in order to keep it there until he had an opportunity for a close shot, some dry grass was forced into the muzzle.
Two seconds more and Groot Willem and Hendrik came riding up; and, in less than half a minute after, the monster, having received a shot from the heavy roer, slowly settled down in its tracks a dead rhinoceros. Willem and Hendrik leaped from their horses and shook hands with Arend in a manner as cordial as if they were just meeting him after an absence of many years.
That distance he must soon have made, at the rate he was travelling when he left us. He should return soon now, or never." Another hour passed and still no signs of Hendrik. "Remain you, Willem," proposed Arend, "and let me go alone." "No," replied the great hunter; "we go together. I once thought that I should never abandon my gun as long as I lived; but it must be.
The rifle was at length loaded, but there would have been but little chance of killing the rhinoceros by a single shot, especially with such uncertain aim as could have been taken from the back of a frightened horse. Arend, therefore, threw himself from the saddle. He had a twofold purpose in doing so.
But Arend Von Wyk was a hunter, and an officer of the Cape Militia, and as the borele passed by him, presenting a fine opportunity for a shot, he could not resist the temptation to give it one. Pulling up his horse, or rather trying to do so, for the animal was restive in the presence of such danger, he fired. The shot produced a result that was neither expected nor desired.
Hans and Arend at once dismounted, and, taking Swartboy and two of the Makololo along with them, went on towards the pool. On reaching it, Swartboy at once pronounced the water to be poisoned. It had been done, he said, with two separate kinds of poison, both of the deadliest nature.
The camelopards followed by Hans, Hendrik, and Arend had continued up the bank of the stream; and, being the main body of the herd, were pursued without the hunters having noticed the defection of Willem. With such noble game in view, and in hot pursuit of it, these three youths were as much excited as Groot Willem himself. Full of ardour they pressed on.
Follow him up," cried Arend. "Hans is in danger." Only a short while was spent in reloading their guns; then, urging their horses to the greatest speed, they galloped after the elephant. Hans and his dusky companions had not been uninterested spectators of the actions of the others, and now saw that they would soon be called upon to become actors in a similar scene.
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