ny discredited. He knew that he was not.

He had observed something else to confirm his suspicion. He remembered
the Hottentot, who in his cups declared that he had lately been to the
north, where he had seen giraffes hunted and killed. He had heard the
Hottentot called out from among the company, and by a man who spoke
"boerish English." The voice was not that of the proprietor of the
place, whom he had seen early in the evening; and yet he had observed no
other white man about the establishment.

Moreover, some saddled horses he had seen in the stables the night
before were also gone. It was these things that had determined him to
stay at the house and watch. On pretence of hiring himself to the boer
he was permitted to remain.

Every day something turned up to confirm his suspicions. He had seen
the Hottentot sent off, while Willem, Arend, and Hendrik were eating
their breakfast inside; and, soon after their departure, he had
witnessed the arrival of two white men, who appeared to consider the
place their home. Those men, he believed, had been there on the night
when the giraffes were missed, and Congo suspected them to be the
thieves. He saw them go off again in the direction they had come,
equipped as for a hunting expedition, or for some distant journey. He
would have followed them, but dared not, lest his doing so might be
observed and excite the suspicion of the boer.

Believing that they would not go far that night, he made up his mind to
track them on the following morning. Stealing away from the shed, where
he slept, he took up their spoor as soon as the first light of day would
allow of it, and, following this, he soon saw enough to assure him that
his suspicions were correct.

A journey of ten miles brought him amongst some ranges of steep hills,
separated from each other by deep, narrow gorges. On ascending to the
top of one of these, he perceived a small column of smoke rising from a
ravine below.

Throwing his hat upon the ground, and commanding the dog Spoor'em to
keep a watch upon it, he stalked forward and soon obtained a view of
what was causing the smoke. It was a fire kindled under the shadow of
some _cameel-doorn_ trees, as if for the bivouac of hunters.

Judging by two animals that stood tied to the trees, Congo knew that
they who had kindled the fire were not hunters, but thieves. The
animals in question were giraffes,--young ones,--the same that Congo had
been driving befo