panse of
plain, yellow with long waving grass. Save for an odd camel-thorn tree
here and there, it was open for some three miles, until checked again by
a dark-green belt of forest. Half a mile away in their front, slouching
leisurely across the flat with giant strides, moved a troop of nine tall
giraffe--a huge dark-coloured old bull, towering above the rest, four or
five big cows, and some two-year-old calves. Well might the hearts of
the two younger Englishmen beat faster, and their palates grow dry and
parched. Neither had seen giraffes in the wild state before, and here
at last was a towering old bull, whose tail, if it could but be secured,
would amply satisfy Kate Manning's commands. Hume Wheler meant killing
that giraffe, more, probably, from a feeling of natural rivalry than
anything else. Joe Granton had at heart a much deeper interest in the
chase. He was in truth in very serious earnest about Kate Manning; the
coveted trophy might mean all the world for him.

The four men set their horses going at a sharp gallop, and had run two
hundred yards before the tall game had spied them. Here, unluckily,
Tapinyani's horse put its foot in a hole, came down with a crash, and
sent its rider flying yards upon the veldt. His loaded rifle, carried,
native fashion, at full cock, exploded, and the startled giraffes
glancing round saw danger, and instantly broke into their ludicrous
rolling gallop. Up and down their long necks flailed the air, in
strange machine-like unison with their gait; quickly they were in full
flight, going great guns for the shelter of the forest ahead of them.
Now the three Englishmen rammed in spurs, set their teeth, and raced
their nags at their hardest. To kill "camel" there is only one method.
You must run up to them (if you can) at top speed in the first two or
three miles of chase, else they will outstay you and escape. Force the
giraffe beyond his pace, and he is yours.

But in this instance the dappled giants had too long a start. The
ponies were not at their best, and the forest sanctuary lay now only two
miles beyond the quarry. Ride as they would, the hunters could not make
up their lee-way in the distance. Once in the woodlands the giraffes
would have much the best of it. The two clouds of dust raised by
pursued and pursuers rose thick upon the clear morning air, and steadily
neared the forest fringe. Now the giraffe are only two hundred yards
from their sanctuary, the li