ood.

Groot Willem, on the other hand, preferred going towards the timber,
where he had been told there was larger game; and, accompanied by Macora
and four attendants, he started off, leaving Hans with Swartboy and
Congo to take care of the pack-horses and other _impedimenta_, as also
to superintend the building of the kraal.

Not far from the river-bank, Macora, with Willem, entered a dense forest
standing in a tract of low marshy ground. They had not gone far, before
coming within sight of some reet boks (reed bucks, _Antelope
eleotragus_, Schreber). These were not more than three hundred yards
away; and, from the unconcerned manner in which they continued their
occupation, Groot Willem saw that they had never been hunted by men
carrying fire-arms, although so near to a village of the Makololo. The
innocent creatures were unworthy of a shot from his roer, and he passed
on without molesting them.

He was soon upon a path that showed signs of being nightly trodden by
large animals, on their way to the water. Amongst other spoor, he was
pleased to observe that of the hippopotamus. Several of these animals
had evidently left the river only two or three hours before, and were
then probably grazing in the neighbourhood. They had been so little
disturbed by man, that, contrary to their usual custom, they came out
upon the land to browse by day.

Willem was satisfied that they had reached a place where they would be
content to stop for a while; and, without proceeding any farther, he
resolved to commence business by bringing down one of two buffaloes he
saw lying at some distance off, under the shade of a clump of trees.

Leaving Macora and his men in care of his horse and three dogs which he
had brought with him, he passed to the leeward of the game, trying to
get between the buffaloes and the forest, to head them off in case of
their retreating to the cover.

Willem was too much of a sportsman to think of stalking upon the
buffaloes, and shooting at them while asleep; and after gaining the
desired station, he whistled for his dogs, for the purpose of giving the
buffaloes a bit of a chase, and trying a shot at them while on the run.
His signal was scarce given, when he heard loud yells from the natives
and the report of Macora's musket.

Something had gone wrong; for he saw that his own horse was loose and
galloping over the plain, while the natives were scampering in different
directions, evidently under the