nimals,
grazing and moving slowly about.

"What are they, Uncle George?" he cried in high excitement to Mr.
Wallace who was also looking through his glasses.

"Hartebeest, bushbuck and antelope," replied the explorer calmly. "If
I'm not mistaken there's a rhino in that patch of bush about two miles
to the right--see it? John, O John! Get those gun-boys on deck, will
you?"

CHAPTER VII

CRITCH'S RHINO

"Are we going to have a hunt?" asked Burt as they left the hill and
plunged forward into the jungle again at the head of the caravan.

"Not to-day," laughed Mr. Wallace. "We won't get out of this till night,
will we?"

"Hardly," replied Montenay. "Once we get out o' this thick jungle and up
to those plains we'll have clear sailin'. I'm no meanin' that we'll find
no jungle there, mind, for we will. But by night we'll be in more decent
veldt-country I'm thinkin'."

They camped at sunset in a grassy space clear of trees. As Captain Mac
had predicted, the low and malarial jungle was left behind them and they
were now getting into the higher lands. These were scattered with
patches of dense forest and jungle, but there were also great plains or
veldts covered with game and animal life.

"Now we'll make those gun-boys earn their pay," said Mr. Wallace the
next morning.

"We'll shoot half a dozen antelope every day to give the bearers meat."
"We'll be shootin' more than that," grimly added Captain Mac as he held
up his hand for silence. "Hear that?"

All listened. It seemed to Burt and Critch that in the distance sounded
a faint mutter of far-away thunder, and they looked at the older men
expectantly.

"Lion," laughed Mr. Wallace shortly. "If we only had ponies we'd land
him to-day!"

The advisability of taking horses along had been discussed but the
explorer had vetoed it finally. "It would only be an experiment," he had
declared. "In other parts of the country it might work but not in the
Congo. We have too many jungles to wade through and a horse would be
stung to death in a day or two."

Three or four of the Bantu hunters were sent ahead, and toward noon, as
they approached a little rise, one of these came running back. He said
something to Captain Mac, who translated.

"Get your guns! They've located a herd of wildebeest an' hartebeest just
ahead."

The boys excitedly took their second-weight guns from the bearers. The
heavy guns were not needed for the antelope. They all moved forward,
while