," cried Jerry, bending eagerly forward, "on the blue-nosed
grandmother wi' the baby on her back!"

It did indeed seem as if Jerry's favourite was going to reach the top of
the crags before any of the other horrified creatures, for she was
powerful as well as large, and her burden was particularly small. The
infant required no assistance, but clung to its dam with its two little
hands like a limpet, so that she could use her limbs freely. But an
unusually long and vigorous bound chanced to loosen the little one's
grasp. It fell off with a pitiful shriek, and, with an imploring upward
look on its miserable countenance, clasped its little hands in mute
despair.

Granny or mamma,--we know not which,--with the quick intuition of a
great general, took in the whole position like a flash of light. She
turned on the ledge she had gained and dropped her tail. Baby seized it
and clambered up. Then away she went like a rocket, and before the
little one had well regained its former position she had topped the
ridge full two yards ahead of the whole troop!

"Well done!" cried McTavish.

"Huzza!" shouted Jerry.

"Brute!" exclaimed Considine, striking up the muzzle of a gun which was
pointed at the grandmother and child by a panting young idiot who rushed
up at the moment, "would you commit murder?"

The gun exploded and sent its ball straight to the new moon, which,
early though it was, had begun to display the washed-out horns of its
first quarter in the sky.

"Confound you!" cried the so-called Brute, who was by no means a coward,
throwing down his gun and hitting Considine a heavy blow on the chest.

Charlie "returned" on the forehead and sent the Brute head over heels on
the turf, but he sprang up instantly, and there would certainly have
been a battle-royal if Groot Willem, who opportunely appeared, had not
seized Considine by the arm, while Hans Marais grasped the Brute by the
neck, and rendered further action impossible. A moment sufficed to cool
the youths, for the "Brute" was young, and they both shook hands with a
laugh and a mutual apology.

Soon after leaving the giant's farm the travellers reached a point where
the main stream was joined by a subsidiary rivulet. Its corresponding
valley branched off to the right, about eight miles in length,
containing fine pasturage and rich alluvial soil. It extended eastward
behind the back of the Kahaberg, where the settlers observed the skirts
of the magnificent