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Updated: May 24, 2025
In his sleep among the guns and the piteous, mutilated dead, he had gone a pilgrimage to a Distant Place and had been told the secret of the world. Yet when he first waked, it was not in his mind only that confusion out of which he had passed to nothingness with the vision of the distracted springboks. Suddenly a torturing thirst came, and it waked him fully to the reality of it all.
At first he and Considine ran together after the springboks; then Hans got near enough, dismounted, and shot one. While he was busy fastening the carcass on his horse, Considine continued to pursue the others; going at full speed, he was soon far away on the horizon.
They have been brought about by a population increasing beyond the means of subsistence, and have taken place as soon as the overplus has required it. "The migrations of the springboks, which we witnessed yesterday, may be more frequent, but are not more certain than those of the central population of Africa.
Some had been successful, some had failed, but a good many springboks had been killed, and all were hearty as crickets and hungry as hyenas. To kindle fires, boil tea, roast venison steaks, spread blankets on the ground, and otherwise attend to the duties of the bivouac, was now the order of the hour.
At this crisis, a spectacle was presented to their eyes that had the happy effect of once more uniting them for a common purpose. While the hunters were at breakfast, they were startled by the dull, heavy sound of footfalls, and the yelping of wild dogs. A quarter of a mile to the eastward they saw approaching them a large drove of springboks, accompanied by a band of giraffes.
The waggons were drawn up so as to form a square, inside of which were tied the horses; the sheep were driven underneath, and the oxen were tied up outside. They feasted well themselves upon the delicate meat of the springboks, but the poor animals had neither food nor water after their hard day's journey.
But there was no time for much idle talk. Von Bloom and his party were in a very unpleasant situation. His flocks were all gone. The cow and horses alone remained; and for these not a blade of grass had been left by the antelopes. Upon what were they to be fed? To follow the spoor of the migratory springboks with the hope of recovering their flock would be quite useless.
He was to leeward of the game, as he had purposely gone there; but after a while, to his chagrin, he saw that they were feeding up the wind, and of course widening the distance between them and himself. It occurred to Hendrik that it might be their habit to browse up the wind, as springboks and some other species do. If so, he might as well give it up, or else make a long circuit and head them.
"Yonder he lies, you could hardly have done it better yourself, brother Hendrik." As Hans said this, he smiled in such a manner as to show, that he had no idea of making a boast of his achievements. Hendrik was loud in acknowledging that it was a most splendid feat, and also in regretting that he had not been on the ground to witness the wonderful migration of the springboks.
The horsemen on the far off horizon were driving the springboks towards the stream which bounded one side of the great plain, Mike was making for the bushes that bordered that stream in the hope of reaching them before the boks should observe us. Oh! it was a glorious burst, that first race over the wild Karroo, on a spirited steed, in the freshness of early morning
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