ch, thus far, not so much as
a single bone, or even a fragment of skin, had been forthcoming!

Sir Reginald instantly recognised the supreme importance of securing so
pricelessly valuable a specimen, and carefully levelled his rifle.
Kneeling on one knee, and resting his elbow on the other, with nerves as
firm and steady as steel, he brought the two sights of his weapon in one
upon a spot immediately behind the shoulder of the creature, as nearly
as he could guess at it in that awkward light, and pressed the trigger.
And at that precise moment a small stone under his heel slipped, and the
jar of the movement, slight as it was, communicated itself to the
weapon, causing the sights to swerve slightly out of line! An
expression of intense annoyance escaped his lips. Had he missed? No;
as the question presented itself to him he saw the animal throw up its
head, give a single bound forward, and roll over. But, as an
irrepressible shout of triumph was raised by the excited von
Schalckenberg, the watchers saw the quarry scramble to its feet and limp
off into the darkness of the forest, evidently pretty badly hurt.

"We must follow it up!" cried the professor, eagerly; "we must secure
it, at all costs. An okapi is worth a hundred other animals of any kind
that one can name. And that one is wounded; we have but to follow it,
and we are certain to find it, sooner or later. Come, my friends, let
us lose not a moment in pursuing it."

And utterly ignoring any further idea of concealment, forgetting also,
in the excitement of the moment, the imprudence, to say the least of it,
of attempting to pursue a wounded animal through the intricacies of a
dense forest, at night, and communicating his excitement to his
companions by his eager exclamations, the professor led the way out of
their ambush, dashing recklessly over rocks, loose boulders, and other
obstructions in his anxiety to arrive quickly at the spot where he hoped
to pick up the trail.

It took them but a few minutes to find the spot at which the okapi had
left the water, for the rocks were splashed with blood, leaving a clear
trail toward one of the innumerable alleys or "runs" through the forest
that debouched upon the drinking-place. But they had no sooner left the
open and entered the particular alley along which the animal had
retreated than they recognised the absolute hopelessness of attempting
to follow the blood-marks without artificial light of some sort.