the native African, Tapinyani
set his royal mark, duly attested and approved by the headmen and elders
of his tribe, to a grant of 300,000 acres of pastoral land--part of that
huge and unexplored tract of country over which he hunted and nominally
held sway. The considerations for this grant were a yearly payment of
100 pounds, a dozen Martini-Henry rifles with suitable ammunition, a
"salted" horse worth 90 pounds, six bottles of French brandy, a suit of
store clothes, a case of Eau de Cologne, and a quantity of beads and
trinkets. These terms may, to the uninitiated mind, seem not highly
advantageous to the native side; yet, measured by the considerations in
other and far vaster South African concessions in recent years, and
remembering that the land granted was at present waterless, remote, and
almost totally unexplored, they were fair and equitable.

This business settled, Tapinyani now turned his thoughts to the trial of
his new horse and rifles. He had once possessed an old broken-down nag,
bought from a swindling Namaqua Hottentot, and he knew a little of guns
and gunnery. But he was unskilled in the use of either. His people
badly wanted giraffe hides for making sandals and for barter; the
animals were plentiful in the open forests a day or two north of the
town; they must have a big hunt forthwith.

Accordingly, the horses having, meanwhile, under the influence of Kaffir
corn, plenty of water, and a good rest, recovered some of their lost
condition, a day or two later the hunting party sallied forth. Keen
Masarwa Bushmen, half famished and dying for a gorge of flesh, trotted
before the horsemen as spoorers; while well in the rear a cloud of
Tapinyani's people hovered in the like hope of meat and hides. For a
whole day the party rode northward into the desert; they found no
giraffe, but spoor was plentiful, and they camped by a tiny limestone
fountain with high hopes for the morrow. At earliest streak of dawn
they were up and preparing for the chase. Tapinyani was stiff and sore
from unaccustomed horse exercise, yet he had plenty of pluck, and, clad
in his canary-yellow, brand-new, store suit of cords, climbed gaily to
the saddle.

In an hour they were on fresh spoor of "camel"; a troop had fed quite
recently through the giraffe-acacia groves; and the whispering Bushmen
began to run hot upon the trail. Just as the great red disk of sun shot
up clear above the rim of earth, they emerged upon a broad ex