side.

On riding forward to the spot, the hunters had an explanation of why the
chase was so soon over. They were only surprised that the creature had
been able to run at all.

It proved to be an ancient male of which but little was left but the
skin and bones.

It looked as though it was the last of its race, about to become
extinct.

On its back and other parts of its body were lumps as large as walnuts,
the scars of old wounds, where musket-bullets had been lodged in its
body several years before!

The rusty head of an arrow was also seen protruding from its side.

It had the appearance of having been hunted for a score of years, and
hundreds of times to have been within an inch of losing its life.

Its enemy, man, had overtaken it at last, and was gazing upon its
struggling not with exultation, but rather with pity and regret.

They felt no triumph in having run down and captured a thing that had
been so long struggling with death. Groot Willem, who had been for a
time highly elated with the prospect of recovering the lost giraffes,
was again in great despondence. Much time had been squandered in this
purposeless pursuit.

He was not one to yield easily to despair; and yet despair was now upon
him. There was every symptom of a dark night coming down, and it was
now near. Inspired either by pity or revenge, he sent a bullet from his
roer into the head of the struggling skeleton; and, throwing himself
into the saddle, he turned the head of his horse once more towards the
house.

An attempt had been made to recover the lost giraffes. It had failed.
Night was close at hand. Nothing more could be done for that day, and
Willem now declared his willingness to return to Graaf Reinet and die.

Hope had departed from his heart, and he no longer felt a desire to
live.

Hendrik and Arend, although sympathising with him in their common
misfortune, exchanged looks of congratulation. They would now be
permitted to go home.

CHAPTER SIXTY SIX.

NEWS OF THE LOST.

The sky had been overclouded all day, and continued so as the sun went
down. Over them descended a night as dark as Erebus.

Perceiving the impracticability of getting that night to the house of
the boer,--a distance of ten or fifteen miles,--the disappointed
trackers dismounted, and staked their horses upon the grass, determined
to wait for the return of another day.

The night was passed in fitful slumbers around a camp-fire, where the