wildered but unhurt, the force
with which the final stroke had been delivered having been so tremendous
that the horns had disengaged themselves by the simple process of
tearing two ghastly slashes in the fearfully lacerated carcass of the
now defunct enemy. Then, after satisfying himself, by sight and smell,
that nothing further was to be feared from his victim, the conqueror
bent his head and resumed his grazing as calmly as though nothing had
happened.

The extraordinary combat took some twenty minutes to reach its
unexpected conclusion, and then, there being nothing to detain me any
longer on the summit of the slope, I descended, rejoined Piet where he
was patiently awaiting me within the shadow of the rock, remounted, and
rode forward, our appearance at once putting the plucky little victor to
precipitate flight. I had a mind to secure the skin of the conquered
lynx-like creature, not only as a curiosity and an interesting memento
of a rather remarkable occurrence, but also because of its interest to
the zoologists upon my return to civilisation; but when we presently
found the carcass it proved to be so terribly mauled that I saw it would
be impossible to remove the pelt otherwise than in fragments, and so
abandoned the idea. But we went after the ostriches, and succeeded in
securing the two full-grown cocks of the troop, with the result that I
became the richer by about ten pounds' worth of the most magnificent
plumes I had ever seen.

A few days later, our route at the time lying through hilly country, it
became a question whether we should enter a long ravine which divided a
range of hills ahead, trusting to the possibility of our being able to
pass through it and emerge at the other end, or whether it would be
necessary to make a rather wide detour round one or the other extremity
of the range. The route through the ravine would suit us best from
every point of view, provided that it did not prove to be a cul de sac,
because it led straight in the desired direction, and appeared to be
tolerably level, also it would probably save us nearly forty miles;
therefore I ordered Jan to outspan upon his arrival at the mouth of the
ravine, while Piet and I rode on ahead to reconnoitre, taking our rifles
with us, as usual, as well as the two dogs, Thunder and Juno.

The range of hills lying in front of us was about twenty miles in
length, running almost due east and west, and the ravine which it was my
purpose to