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Little Jan and Trüey still rode in the wagon; but the others now travelled afoot, partly because they had the flock to drive, and partly that they might not increase the load upon the horses. They all suffered greatly from thirst, but they would have suffered still more had it not been for that valuable creature that trotted along behind the wagon the cow "old Graaf," as she was called.
Little Truey was delighted to see so many beautiful flowers. There were bright scarlet geraniums, and starlike sweet-scented jessamines, and the gorgeous belladonna lily, with its large blossoms of rose-colour and white; and there were not only plants in flower, but bushes, and even trees, covered with gaudy and sweetly-perfumed blossoms.
"Lions!" ejaculated her father and Hendrik, with an accent that betokened alarm. Indeed, they reminded her of lions, Truey again affirmed, and Totty said the same. "How many were there of them?" "Oh! a great drove, not less than fifty." They could not have counted them, as they were constantly in motion, galloping from place to place, and butting each other with their horns.
"I can understand how fires would stop the kind you speak of, since you say they are without wings. But since they are so, how do they get through the fires? Jump them?" "No, not so," replied Hans. "The fires are built too wide and large for that." "How then, brother?" asked Hendrik. "I'm puzzled." "So am I," said little Jan. "And I," added Truey.
Little Jan and Truey still rode in the wagon; but the others now travelled afoot, partly because they had the flock to drive, and partly that they might not increase the load upon the horses. They all suffered greatly from thirst, but they would have suffered still more had it not been for that valuable creature that trotted along behind the wagon the cow "old Graaf," as she was called.
Another moment, and its envenomed fangs would pierce deep into his flesh. With a despairing scream Truey rushed forward. She hoped to attract the monster upon herself. She would risk her own life to save that of her brother! She had got within six feet of the threatening reptile. Jan was about the same distance from it on the opposite side.
Truey, we have said, looked for the cause of this sudden change in the tactics of the reptile. She learnt it at the first glance. There stretched a piece of smooth sloping ground from the edge of the lake back into the plain. By this the little peninsula was approached. As she glanced outward, she saw the springbok advancing down this slope.
"Where is the snake?" As he put these questions, he kept examining Trüey from head to foot, as if expecting to see a reptile twined around some part of her body. "The snake, Jan! Did you not see it? It was just there, at our feet; but now see! yonder it is. The secretary has got it. See! They are fighting! Good bird! I hope it will punish the villain for trying to rob my pretty weavers.
And so saying she mended her pace; and passing round the end of the lake, walked out upon the peninsula until she stood under the willow. There was no underwood. The tree stood alone upon the very end of the spit of land, and Truey went close in to its trunk. Here she stopped and looked up among the branches, to ascertain what was causing so much excitement among the birds.
"I did not halt till I had put several acres of antelopes between myself and the place where I had last stood; and then I made the best of my way to the wagon. "Long before I had reached it, I could see that Jan, and Trüey, and Totty, were safe under the tent.
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