resently three Boers--the girl's brothers and her betrothed--each
guiding a led horse, canter up to the wagons. Following at their heels
is a Hottentot after-rider, also with a spare horse heavy laden. The
men are hot, dusty, and sweat-stained. Ever since yesterday morning
they have been away in the grass veldt, following a trek of springboks,
and their display of venison and jaded nags prove that they have hunted
hard, successfully, and far. Seventy miles have they ridden; a dozen
springbok have they brought in; and, greatest luck of all, the flesh,
skin, and horns of a great cow gemsbok decorate the led horse of Rodolf
Klopper. The gemsbok (_Oryx capensis_), one of the noblest of
antelopes, is rare indeed in Cape Colony nowadays, even upon the verge
of the Orange River, and Anna's betrothed is proportionately elate. The
gemsbok is protected, too, under heavy penalties, in the Cape Colony;
but what boots this to the wandering Trek-Boer in these wild solitudes,
where the echo of laws can scarce be heard, and gamekeepers are not?

At five o'clock the party are gathered beneath the wagon-sail, feasting
merrily, and with some noise and laughter, on titbits of venison: the
rest of the meat meanwhile being salted, to be dried for _billtong_ on
the morrow. As they sit at meat, the hunting scenes are re-enacted for
the benefit of Anna and her father, and, in particular, Rodolf's
desperate chase of the gemsbok. Meanwhile, as the sun nears the horizon
after his day's tramp, the flocks, bringing with them a cloud of red
dust, come in for the night. First, they drink deeply and long at the
vlei, which now reflects upon its glassy surface the ruddy glories of
the sunset. Then the tired creatures are kraaled, their masters rising
to count them as they file in.

Darkness falls swiftly; the huge vault of sky assumes its deep indigo
hue of night; the stars spring forth in glittering array; there is a
wonderful and refreshing coolness in the air; the cry of one or two
night birds may be heard--the dikkop and kiewitje plovers--and the
distant wail of a prowling jackal.

The Boer and his sons now move their squat wagon-chairs nearer to the
warm blaze of the camp-fire; they smoke vigorously, and occasionally
cast stolidly a sentence at one another. Anna and her heavy lover
stroll a little beyond the firelight by the edge of the vlei; their
voices intermingle curiously with the clang of water-fowl--duck, geese,
widgeon, and tea