Part 24 (1/2)
”I will tell you I saw a Roebargie officer come into a room where there were many of these frauleins He had never seen one of the at one, he asked a man near to take him to her He went up, Victor, bent his head very slowly, then--I tell you truth--he seized the fraulein round the waist, and as so round and round like a wounded pouw”
”That, I have heard, the folks do in the towns The Hottentots, too, are fond of it, though they don't run about in the saa of all The men pass all their lives in the stores or in the shops, or they just walk about the town, or go in parties to ride out and ride hoaoes after it
”Then, Hans, I will tell you what it is The Mensch have no , or training their oxen and horses, or even spooring, as we have here We can make a mark on a man, and we know him by his deeds We know you, Hans; you are a safetoYou can be trusted to stop an elephant in his charge, and you can tell at a glance a buffalo's spoor from an ox's In the towns they can't do this, and so they amuse themselves with these trifles And do they not try to exceed each other in their clothes, Hans?”
”Yes, they do; and by this means they sho much money they have”
”You are not sorry to coain, Hans?”
”No, Victor, I ahed at me because my clothes were not like theirs I should like to see so a man who an angry bull elephant I think we should laugh then”
”Yes, Hans; and they laughed at you because you were not clever at what is not a h at them because they could not do what it requires a man with a head, heart, and hand to succeed in I don't think we shall ever want to live in a town”
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
HANS TIRES OF THE TOWNS--REACHES THE WILDERNESS--ADVENTURES WITH WILD BEASTS--MEETS HIS OLD COMPANIONS, AND STARTS FOR HIS OLD HAUNTS
To aof Hans Sterk, the journey from the eastern frontier to the locality north-west of Natal Bay, in which his friends were residing, was merely a pleasant trip He had to pass over e men and beasts, the former of which would not hesitate, should the opportunity occur, to slay a solitary traveller for the sake of his gun or clothes, whilst the latter would consider a white ood meal for dinner or supper
As Hans intended to pursue his journey alone, should no other e of the habits of wild beasts, and his weapon, which he well kne to use, would enable hiainst any number of these eneain froe where and when he er his safe transit across the country
Thus Hans without hesitation left the last lager of the faruide than an old waggon-track, and the knowledge that he must ride in a north-easterly direction, he started for the pass in the Draakensberg mountains by which he should be able to reach his friends near the Bushed the horse which had carried him from Port Elizabeth for another well suited to carry pack-saddles, and having bought a hardy, well-trained, shooting horse, Hans was ah which he intended riding ell supplied with game; there ater in abundance; and thus to the hunter supplied with aht be needed to be obtained on the journey
During two days Hans rode steadily onwards, passing principally over plains where ostriches scoured away on seeing hinus and bontebok bounded over the plains, and many solitary antelopes started frohts once reeted hiht for since his capture by the slavers As he looked around at the free, open, untrodden country, and saw the creatures on it, he went back in memory to Cape Town and the life led there, and he could not help being thankful that he had been to that town, in order that now he ht with hi in order to supply hi of his ride he stopped near a narrow ravine where a clear stream ran over the rocks, and where there were several fine trees, underneath which broken branches were scattered in abundance, and where there was consequently plenty of fuel for fire Having knee-haltered his horses, so that they could not stray far, Hans started with his gun to exae of a vlei or marsh into which the little streaae of this vlei, Hans coround to look for spoor, as by that ht probably find there The first footprint that attracted his attention was that of a buffalo, which from the size of the hoof and the wide-spread toes he concluded was a very old bull This buffalo, from the freshness of the spoor, was evidently in the reeds not far froh sports He, on the present occasion, wished to obtain fresh meat, and a s rather too tough As Hans decided to seek for soame, he noticed a movement in the reeds about fifty yards from him, and there saw the bull buffalo stalk slowly out, raise its head as it scented danger, and then trot sloay in the opposite direction Fro brute as it er which it would have readily encountered Having reached a covert about two hundred yards fro it, the creature entered this, crushi+ng the long canes as though they were nothing stronger than grass, and expecting there to obtain a sanctuary As far as Hans was concerned the buffalo was safe; but his attention was soon drawn to an object which, scarcely visible above the long grass, see to the reeds in which the buffalo had retreated At first Hans supposed this to be a buck, but a glance which he obtained as the aniled mass of reeds showed him it was a full-sized lion The defenceless state of his horses at once occurred to Hans, whose first thought was to return to the convinced that the lion was in pursuit of the buffalo, he determined to wait in order to see the result of the coer, for it did not rest ast the thick canes, but slowly stalked out on the opposite side, thus giving to Hans a good view of itself The lion soon followed, and as the buffalo turned about and sniffed the air, the lion with a rapid bound sprang on the buffalo's shoulder, and endeavoured to drag it to the ground The great height and giant strength of the buffalo prevented the lion fro, and with a bound and a shake it shook off its foe In an instant, however, the lion with a savage roar was again on its prey, which with its claws and teeth it tore fearfully
Hans, who had been an idle spectator of this co to prevent the lion fro the buffalo, but it was too late now to save the aniht, too, was one which Hans had never before witnessed He had often found the remains of creatures that lions had killed and partly eaten; he had also seen a lion kill a zebra, but that was an almost instantaneous event To see somewhat of a combat between a lion and a buffalo in their native desert, the one thethe carnivora, the other thethe bovine species, was a scene to be remembered
”What would they say to this in Cape Town?” thought Hans, as he saw the buffalo, after dragging the lion so to cast hiround, and shortly after lie quietly down, as though ued by a day's journey
Since his arrival in the eastern frontier, Hans had enjoyed no real sport To a , the sport to be obtained fro birds or small buck is scarcely worthy of the name As the whist player who has been accustoh stake scarcely feels any interest in a gae stamp only may depend, so the South African hunter does not deem it sport unless there is soame
When Hans saw the buffalo killed by the lion, his old instinct cah he was alone in the desert, and had no object in running a risk, still the idea at once occurred to hi the lion thatfeat than to approach the buffalo, and select fro , Hans walked round a portion of the marsh, and then approached the buffalo, which was by this tihty yards froht Standing erect on the buffalo, it stared at Hans, its blood-stained paws giving it a most for, it gave a savage warning growl; but finding that this seemed to have no effect, it then appeared much puzzled, and as Hans came steadily on, the lion turned and trotted sloay fro taken about four or five pounds of ue, walked quietly back again, giving every attention to the lion, which had trotted about two hundred yards off, and was sitting on its haunches, watching the cool proceeding of the two-legged creature that had thus presumed to rob it When Hans found himself at a sufficient distance froe, he turned round, and was about proceeding towards his horses, when a strange-looking object ast the reeds attracted his attention He had not been able to see what this was, as the object sank down a the reeds just as he turned, but it seeun to the shoulder, Hans advanced rapidly towards the spot, in order to discover what the object hen, to his surprise, up started three figures frorass, and one shouted, ”That is Hans; no other un at this reht, saw that his old coures, and Hotman, a farmer, the third
Hans ran to his friends, elcomed him like brothers, and to his inquiry as to how they happened to be there, they replied that they heard he was coon-track; thus they had coame: that they had outspanned about two a near the vlei Believing this ht possibly be Hans, they had determined to try to stalk hile-handed at the lion, they came on quickly, and were not far behind hi the lion, and cutting off the et near hist the reeds
”We will lead the horses to the waggons, Hans You will colad to see you on your return We all thought you must be dead You must tell us all about your adventures after you shot the elephant; for we found your spoor, and ca was pleasantly passed at the waggons Hans inforh, and of the strange scenes he had encountered, and his account was listened to with great interest ”And now, Victor, tell me the news”
”All the Mensch are well,” replied Victor, ”and Katrine is getting well now she knows you are alive When she heard froht at first that it would have killed her, and she was like a body with no life in it When your letters caht you would soon coht stop in Cape Town some time”
”Did you knoho had taken me?” inquired Hans
”No; we could not find any spoor after the first day, because of the rain that had fallen; but having stopped a week near where your elephant lay, and having gone out each day in various directions firing our guns, ere coht away