VI START FOR THE WAGGONS 97 



hands), did not think proper to molest us, but after 

 eyeing us intently for a ftw seconds, and giving vent 

 to a few snorts, wheeled round, and took themselves 

 off at a quick trot. In a few minutes I once more 

 reached my headquarters, and as the two boys I had 

 left behind had cooked me a very nice stew of 

 elephant's heart and rice, and had a kettle of tea 

 ready, it need scarcely be added that it was not long 

 before I was enjoying a delicious meal, bringing an 

 appetite to bear upon it that none but a hunter can 

 appreciate. The boys being too much knocked up 

 with the last two days' work to care to dance, 

 though their appetites were unimpaired, I was soon 

 fast asleep beneath my kaross, dreaming of sport, 

 such as one never meets with save in the happy 

 hunting-grounds of the imagination. 



For another fortnight, I remained in the same 

 skerm or camp already described, hunting through 

 the surrounding country in every direction with good 

 success, and bagging three more fine bull elephants 

 and five cows, two of the latter carrying remarkably 

 fine tusks. As I then had more ivory than my 

 eleven Kafirs could carry at once, I determined to 

 get it to the waggons at Linquasi as quickly as 

 possible, and so set to work to transport it thither by 

 instalments. Towards the end of the month I got 

 the whole lot as far as Dett, a long open valley in 

 the midst of thick goussy forests, with a spongy, 

 marshy bottom, which is distant from two to three 

 days' walk from Linquasi. Here I met my 

 Hottentot waggon-driver John, and two Kafirs, who 

 were on their way from our headquarters with powder 

 and lead to W.,^ my partner, of whom I had heard 

 nothing for more than two months. They told me 



^ George Wood. 



H 



