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Hendrik and Swartboy only accompanied him, for he could not yet bring himself to leave the children with no other protection than Totty almost as much a child as themselves. Hans, therefore, remained by the camp. At first the hunters followed the little rivulet that ran from the spring and vley.
There was a point where the water was easier of access than elsewhere a little to one side of where the wash or waste-stream of the lake ran out. It was a sort of cove with bright sandy beach, and approachable from the plain by a miniature gorge, hollowed out, no doubt, by the long usage of those animals who came to drink at the vley.
Remarking that it was tough, he proceeded to pick up its literary contents, while his brothers skinned the lioness. Shortly afterwards they all returned to camp. Passing that way an hour or so later, Hans Marais and Charlie Considine came upon the spoor of the lioness. "I say, Charlie," called out Hans, "there must be a lion in the vley there. I've got the spoor. Come here."
To do all these things would take up a great deal of time; and they must be all done against the return of the quaggas, else the whole scheme would be a failure. Should the animals arrive upon the ground before the pit was covered in and all traces of the work removed, they would make off without entering the water, and perhaps never visit that vley again.
He knew what they were, and had often seen a drove of them perhaps the same one approach the vley and drink. Neither he nor any of his people had molested them, though they might have killed many.
All this was evidence of the great number of ravenous creatures that must have their home in that quarter, evidence, too, that game animals abounded, for where these are not numerous the beasts of prey cannot exist. Indeed, from the quantity of tracks that were seen upon the shores of the vley, it was evident that animals of various kinds had drunk there during the night.
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.
I heard her growling and stationary, as if dying. In one minute her comrades crossed the vley a little below me, and made towards the rhinoceros. I then slipped Wolf and Boxer on her scent, and, following them into the river, I found her lying dead within twenty yards of where the old lion had lain two nights before.
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.
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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