thers the sole care of what he prized so
highly. For the sake of a few hours of better fare than that to which
he had lately been accustomed, why had he neglected to look after a
prize that had cost so many toils and so much time in obtaining? Why
could he not have lived a few days longer, as he had done for so many
months, watchful, thoughtful,--on the alert? All would then have been
well.

A search of five minutes among the huts and sheds told him that the
giraffes were certainly gone.

The task was to recover them. Directing Swartboy and Congo to make all
the inquiries they could, as to the time and manner of their
disappearance, the great hunter turned despairingly towards the house to
communicate to his companions the misfortune that had befallen them.

The news took away every appetite. The grand breakfast prepared by the
vrow and her dusky handmaidens was likely to remain uneaten; for all,
starting up from their seats, hastened towards the shed where the
giraffes had been confined.

The hospitable boer expressed a keen sympathy for their misfortune, and
declared his willingness to spend a month, if need be, with all his
servants, in the recovery of the lost camelopards.

"All dish comes of dranking do mush smokes," said he. "Mine beoples
last night all got more so drunk; put dey must do so no more. I shall
spill all de smokes on the ground, and puy no more forever."

One of the giraffes had been tied to a post forming part of the shed in
which they had been shut up. The post had not only been torn out of the
earth, but from its fastenings at the top, and was lying on the ground,
six or eight paces from where it had formerly stood. Two other posts
adjoining had been pushed down, making a breach in the enclosure
sufficiently large for the giraffes to have made their exit.

Had they been tied to trees as usual, they could not have escaped. The
rheims around their slender necks would have held them.

Perhaps by the weight and strength of their bodies they had pushed down
the stockade, and the rheims had slipped over the ends of the posts
after they had fallen. In this manner they might have escaped. But,
though it seemed simple enough, still there was something strange in it,
and our travellers thought so.

The captives had lately shown no disposition to get free, and it was odd
they should do so now. Moreover there must have been a premeditated,
jointly-contrived plan between them, and this co