nouts and
snuff the gale, as if they suspected that some enemy was near.

My companion just then protruded the muzzle of "Queen Anne" through a
bush, and, resting the long barrel upon a branch, took aim and blazed
away.

And the herd ran away--every hoof and horn of them--so fast, that before
the echoes of the huge musket had died among the trees of the forest,
there was not an antelope in sight upon that wide plain, nor any other
living creature except Ben Brace and myself!

Ben thought he must have hit the animal at which he had aimed; but no
sportsman likes to acknowledge that he has missed entirely: and if we
were to believe the accounts of hunters, there must be an incredible
number of wounded beasts and birds that contrive to make their escape.

The fact was, that Ben's shot was too small for such game; and if he had
hit a hundred times with it, he could not have killed so large an animal
as these antelopes were.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

Ben was now sorry he had not brought a bullet with him, or, at all
events, some slugs. Larger shot he could not have brought, as there was
none on board the barque. But, indeed, in starting out our ambition had
not soared so high; neither my companion nor I had anticipated meeting
such fine game as a herd of antelopes, and we had prepared ourselves
just as we should have done for a day's fowling about the downs of
Portsmouth. Birds we expected would be the principal game to be met
with, and, therefore, birds, and small ones only, had anything to fear
from us. It is not likely that Ben would have shot the vulture had he
not crept so near; and then, even the small shot, projected so
powerfully by the huge piece, had penetrated its body and killed it.

We therefore greatly regretted not having provided ourselves with
"slugs," or a bullet or two, out of which we could easily have made
them.

Regrets were to no purpose, however. We were too far from the barque to
go back for them. It would be no joke walking so far in the great heat
that there was--besides, by going directly back we should have to pass
once more through the palm-wood, and this we had determined to avoid by
going round it on our return. No; we could not think of taking the
backtrack just then. We must do the best we could without the slugs,
and, so resolving, Ben once more loaded "Queen Anne" with the
snipe-shot, and we marched on.

We had not gone very far when a singular sort of a tree drew our
attent