on. They had reckoned that it would be
a fortnight's journey to the banks of the Gariep; but they had been ten
days on their route, and had not, so far as they could calculate,
accomplished half the distance. Each of them had only two charges of
powder left, and it was evident that their guns alone could be reckoned
on, as furnishing them with food in the country where they were now
travelling. Their condition was rendered worse by two unsuccessful
attempts which they made to shoot a buffalo on the day after the last
batch of gemsbok meat had been consumed. They had come on the track of
a herd of buffaloes, which they had resolved to follow, and after many
hours of careful stalking, they had got so near to the herd at sunset as
to venture a shot. But, just as in the former instance, though the
animal was hit, and it might be severely wounded, it did not fall, but
was able to make off with the rest of the herd.

"Oh, Frank, what will become of us?" exclaimed Nick, as he witnessed
this mishap. "If we don't get food somewhere to-night, I feel as if I
should perish of hunger."

"Never say die, Nick," said Frank, cheerily. "Look here! This brute is
hit hard, I'm sure of that; and I'm pretty sure, too, that he won't hold
out very long. Just look what lots of blood he has left behind him.
They'll be quite enough to enable us to track him, even by this light.
We'll follow up the blood-marks until we find him. Even if another shot
should be necessary, we shall still have a charge apiece left, if we
should be attacked. If we kill the buffalo it will supply us with food
for a long time to come, and it is very unlikely that the country will
continue as bare of all fruit, as it has been since we left the
village."

"All right, Frank," returned Nick; "that is the best way of viewing it
at all events. I'll just take a hole up in my belt to stop the
importunities of my stomach, and then we'll be off after the buffalo.
We may as well go that way as any other, at all events."

They set out accordingly, following without difficulty, by the help of
the moon, the course taken by the herd across the open plain and the
intervening patches of scrub for two or three hours. The marks of blood
were plainly enough visible all the way, sometimes in large patches, as
though the wounded animal had stopped behind the rest through momentary
weakness; and then again only a drop here and there, as if it had again
exerted its remaining st