tive love of life which all
feel, he might have surrendered himself to fate; but urged by this, he
kept on.

He was upon the eve of falling to the earth through sheer exhaustion,
when his ears were saluted by the deep-toned bay of a hound, and close
after it a voice exclaiming--

"Look out, Baas Willem! Somebody come yonder!"

Two seconds more and Arend was safe from further pursuit. The hound
Spoor'em was dancing about the borele's head, by his loud, angry yelps
diverting its attention from everything but himself.

Two seconds more and Groot Willem and Hendrik came riding up; and, in
less than half a minute after, the monster, having received a shot from
the heavy roer, slowly settled down in its tracks--a dead rhinoceros.

Willem and Hendrik leaped from their horses and shook hands with Arend
in a manner as cordial as if they were just meeting him after an absence
of many years.

"What does it mean, Arend?" jocosely inquired Hendrik. "Has this brute
been pursuing you for the last twelve hours?"

"Yes."

"And how much longer do you think the chase would have continued?"

"About ten seconds," replied Arend, speaking in a very positive tone.

"Very well," said Hendrik, who was so rejoiced at the deliverance of his
friend that he felt inclined to be witty. "We know now how long you are
capable of running. You can lead a borele a chase of just twelve hours
and ten seconds."

Groot Willem was for some time unspeakably happy, and said not a word
until they had returned to the place where the lion had been killed.
Here they stopped for the purpose of recovering the saddle and bridle
from the carcass of the horse.

Groot Willem proposed they should remain there till the morning; his
reason being that, in returning through the narrow path that led out to
the open plain, they might be in danger of meeting buffaloes,
rhinoceroses, or elephants, and be trampled to death in the darkness.

"That's true," replied Arend; "and it might be better to stay here until
daylight, but for two reasons. One is, that I am dying of hunger, and
should like a roast rib of that antelope I shot in the morning."

"And so should I," said Hendrik, "but the jackals have saved us the
trouble of eating that."

Arend was now informed of the events that had occurred to his absence,
and was highly amused at Hendrik's account of the misfortune that had
befallen Swartboy and Congo.

"We are making a very fair commencement in the way of