, it's all right, gen'lemen; he knows. He says we are to keep right
along just outside the trees, and that he will take us to what he calls
the big stones. But they are days and days farther on."

"But that's very vague," said the doctor.

"Yes, sir, I daresay it is," said Buck, "though I don't know what vague
means. I only know that there's plenty of room out in this country to
go on trekking for years, and I should always feel sure that a chap like
Mak would be able to find his way back when you give the order to turn
round."

So the journey was continued, with no day passing without some object of
interest being found. The guns and rifles of the party kept the soup
pot boiling, and ample joints and birds for roasting over the embers,
the picking out of places where abundant supplies of wood and water
could be obtained being one of Mak's greatest accomplishments; but as
the boys laughingly said when comparing notes, there was no getting any
work out of Mak the Chief. He would find what was requisite, or would
trace game to its lair, and then make a grand display of his powers of
eating and go to sleep.

"No, gen'lemen," said Buck, one day, "we don't see many traces of lions.
You see, we keep hanging about so along the edge of this great forest,
and we'd rather not run against any of the great cats, because we don't
want to spare any of our bullocks. If you gen'lemen wish for lion
hunting all you have got to do is to tell Mak, and he will take us right
out on the open veldt where there's a kopje of rocks here and there and
the spring boks and antelope beasts go in droves. That's where you will
find the lions--lying up in the shelter of the rocks at one time, and
hanging on to the skirts of the different herds so as to stalk their
dinners when they want them and go on hunting them, you may say, all
over the plains."

"Yes, I understand," said Mark, "but we don't want to go out over the
plains, though it's very nice to have a canter now and then and pick up
a buck."

"One Buck Denham's enough," said Dean drily.

"Yes, gen'lemen; quite, I should think."

"Quite," said Mark; "but he's the best Buck on the plains. You
shouldn't try to make bad jokes, though, Dean. And look here, Buck, we
couldn't do better than we are doing now. Nothing pleases father more
than going out of an evening with his gun at the edge of a forest like
this, and picking off the guinea-fowls for supper as they come into the
trees t