ties in obedience to the command of their chief. The hunters could
not reasonably detain them longer, and, though with reluctance,
permitted them to take their departure.

Three days were passed in riding about the neighbourhood, and exploring
it within a circle of twenty miles. Several small groves of
_cameel-doorn_ were found, but no camelopards could be seen. They had
evidently forsaken that district or country, and might not return for
many weeks or months. The Makololo appeared to have spoken the truth.

"I don't say that we have been acting like fools," said Arend; "but I
will say that we deserve to be called nothing else, if we squander any
more time in search of what fate has decreed that we are not to obtain."

"Go on, Arend!" exclaimed Hendrik. "I could not talk more sensibly
myself."

"I have nothing more to say at present," said Arend, with a significant
shake of the head, as much as to say that the subject was too plain to
require discussion.

"What should we do, Hans?" asked Groot Willem.

"Start for home," was the ready answer. "I am now of Hendrik's
opinion," continued the botanist. "We should not expect to be
successful in every undertaking, and we have for some time been engaged
on one in which we seem destined to fail."

"Very well," said Groot Willem. "Let us first go back to the country of
Macora. It will be so far on our way to Graaf Reinet."

Seeing that Swartboy was anxious to give his opinion on this important
subject, Hendrik was kind enough to give him a chance by asking for it.
The Bushman possessed to an extraordinary degree the not unusual
accomplishment of saying a very little in a great many words.
Fortunately, for the gratification of his vanity, the hunters were at
supper, and had time to listen to his circumlocution.

The failure of the expedition so far was, in Swartboy's opinion, wholly
owing to Congo. He had known from the first that no success could
attend them while guided by a Kaffir, or any race of blacks whose
language a Kaffir could understand.

Swartboy further informed them that in his childhood he had daily seen
giraffes; and that if they were amongst his countrymen, the Bushmen,
who, in his opinion, were honest and intelligent compared with other
Africans, they would have no difficulty in procuring what they required.
This communication, to those who knew that the Bushmen were, perhaps,
the lowest specimens of humanity to be found in all Africa, only c