he party, bearing a
little rifle which he had carried in sections in his tiny brass trunk.

"I am something going to shoot," he said, paying no attention to their
jests. "Is it allowed to smoke?"

"Not much," chuckled Jack. "You just sit tight and wait. What you going
to shoot?"

"I want a good oryx head," declared the scientist. "But I will shoot him
myself."

That was a wonderful night to the two boys. Hour after hour they waited
until the moon came up, and before them filed uncounted hundreds of
animals. There were great droves of zebra, giraffes by the score, three
or four rhinoceroses who plunged across the stream and vanished, herd
after herd of gazelle, antelope, and wildebeest, and a magnificent drove
of the cow-like eland.

Lions abounded, but the other animals paid them no attention, nor did
the great cats come for game; they would appear, drink, and slink away,
two or three even swimming across the stream. Toward midnight a number
of oryx were seen, their long, black, sword-like horns mixed with a herd
of zebra. So far not a shot had been fired, but without warning von Hofe
raised his little sporting rifle and fired twice.

Instantly the game was off, with a great clicking of hoofs and startled
snorts. The explorer and the two boys at once picked out their animals
and opened fire. To his vast delight, von Hofe's oryx bounded high and
fell dead; it was found that both bullets had gone through the heart.

Schoverling put down another oryx and a zebra, whose flesh the Masai
delighted in, though it was too tough for the others. Jack and Charlie
each dropped an eland, Jack wounding a hartebeest which got away in the
rush. An instant later, only the thunder of hoofs dying away in the
distance showed what vast herds had been there.

The next day they headed by compass for the northeast, which would take
them into the supposed desert country, but clear of the great Lorian
swamp. Here for the first time they began to be tormented by
flies--great long insects such as the boys had never seen, and which
rendered fly-nets necessary to their tents at night. Had it not been for
them, the tents might have remained unused, for the whites needed them
little and the Indians slept in the wagons.

Once they came to an outlying village of the Samburu--a nomad people
dwelling farther south. Here they found not only cattle, sheep and
goats, but herds of camels, which were kept for their milk and hair
alone. These villager