314 A Breath from the Veldt 



to my experience. The pony must have turned a complete somersault over me, 

 for the next instant I felt the whole of his weight on the top of me, whilst 

 something (probably one of the other pony's hoofs) caught me violently on the 

 back of the head, knocking me quite insensible. As proved afterwards, I must 

 have lain under a thorn bush about a quarter of an hour in blissful ignorance 

 of the world and all that therein is. Then as consciousness returned I noticed 

 first of all the loss of my hat, after which the absence of my ponies gradually 

 dawned upon me. Thinking that no bones were broken, I scrambled up, and 

 having after some trouble discovered the lost headgear reposing gracefully on a 

 thorn tree, I crawled on as best I could towards the camp. Here I found 

 everybody in a great state of excitement. The terror-stricken ponies had 

 galloped in right up to the fire, where they now stood trembling from head to 

 foot ; and, fearing that I had been attacked by a lion, Oom and Prince were 

 preparing to start in search of me, with a lantern and a bottle of whisky. They 

 were more than delighted to see me safe, and apparently sound. I soon found, 

 however, that my collar-bone was broken and all my left side badly bruised and 

 crushed, seeing which the old man bound me up as well as he could, and next 

 morning we made a start for the Middle Drift. The second day brought us to 

 the Umsingwani Drift, whence Van Staden rode on to rejoin his family, and I, 

 being too knocked about to ride, trudged along on foot by the side of the 

 waggons. The big river was now before us, and on nearing it a remarkable 

 sight caught my eye — an eagle making two separate strikes at a Bush khoorhan. 

 The bird (a bateleur) dropped on to its prey, and apparently failing to kill it, 

 he mounted again about 20 feet into the air, and turning over, dropped and struck 

 for the second time. I had never before seen or heard of any of the eagles 

 acting in this way, for as a rule most of these great birds drop in a blundering 

 fashion on to their prey, and then, hanging on to it at their whole leg's length, 

 allow it to kick and struggle as much as it pleases, finally putting an end to it 

 by stretching their heads down and separating the vertebras close to the skull. 



On our arrival at the Middle Drift I went straight to the police camp, 

 where Sergeant Chawner, seeing my dilapidated condition, treated me with the 

 greatest kindness. Knowing surgery and having the necessary bandages, he 

 bound up my shoulder most satisfactorily ; but it was more than a month before 

 I could use my left arm. Here at this Middle Drift were a number of waggons 

 bound for Fort Victoria, but all blocked and with little hope of getting on now 

 that war had broken out. And not far off was dear old Tante, once more 

 happy with her united family in beloved Transvaal. She and her daughters all 



