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That's it, good bird! Give it to him! See, Jan! What a fight!" "Oh, ah!" said Jan, now comprehending the situation. "Oh, ah! Sure enough, yonder is a snake, and a wopper, too. Ne'er fear, Trüey! Trust my secretary. He'll give the rascal a taste of his claws. There's a lick well put in! Another touch like that, and there won't be much life left in the scaly villain. There again, wop!"
"Papa," inquired little Trüey, perceiving that her father did not laugh, and thinking to draw him into the conversation, "Papa! were these the kind of locusts eaten by John the Baptist when in the desert? His food, the Bible says, was 'locusts and wild honey." "I believe these are the same," replied the father.
Truey, and Jan, and Totty, saw, to their dismay, that the baboons were not out upon an idle errand. They were after the maize-plants! In a few minutes most of the troop had entered the corn-field, and were hidden from view by the tall stems and broad leaves of the plants.
A shout of joy burst from the horsemen, and the next moment little Jan and Truey leaped out from the cap-tent into the arms of their father while the mutual congratulations of Hans and Hendrik, Swartboy and Totty, produced for some moments a scene of joyful confusion quite indescribable.
The excitement of the chase, which on former occasions he had so much enjoyed, now no longer attracts him half so much as the smiles of Wilhelmina Van Wyk, the only sister of his friends Groot Willem and Arend. The latter young gentleman would not have travelled far from the daily society of little Truey Von Bloom, had he been left to his own inclinations.
They saw Totty with Truey and Jan standing by the head of the ladder; but there was something in their manner that told that all was not right. Where was Hans? As soon as the hunters came in sight, Jan and Truey ran down the rounds, and out to meet them. There was that in their glances that bespoke ill tidings, and their words soon confirmed this conjecture.
Close by the spring, but a little farther in the direction of the plain, was a vley, or pool in fact, it might have been termed a small lake and upon the quiet bosom of its water the sky-blue corollas lay sleeping in all their gorgeous beauty. Trüey, leading her little pet on a string, had gone down on the bank to look at them. She thought she could never cease gazing at such pretty things.
"What is it, papa?" inquired little Trüey, who was near him; "what were you speaking about, dear papa?" And then all the others gathered around him, noticing his excited manner, and pleased at seeing him look so happy. "What is it, papa?" asked all together, while Swartboy and Totty stood eager as the rest to hear the answer.
"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 Truey, and Totty, were safe under the tent.
Little Trüey 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.
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