and he would lead them to where
there was abundance of a large kind of partridge, or francolin, which
was delicious eating; or take them to some place at the edge of the
forest where he knew from experience that the harsh, metallic-voiced,
speckled guinea-fowl would be coming home to roost.

This would always be when the supply of the larder was very low, and
then, with the two keepers to load, a heavy bag would invariably be
made, and a pretty good odour of burning feathers pervade the camp.

Camp was formed one night with all the precautions made such as were
customary in the part of the world through which they were travelling,
so as to carefully secure the draught animals and the ponies, for
however peaceful and free from danger the country might seem, the black
always marched about shouldering his spear and watching that this was
done, while after noting how careful the man was, the doctor gave him a
few words of praise and left these precautions to him, while these
safeguards always included the collecting of a supply of wood sufficient
to keep up a good blazing fire till morning.

"I suppose this is all right," said Mark, who was extra tired and had
several times yawned widely after partaking of an ample supper, "but all
these days we have been travelling farther and farther into the depth of
the country we haven't seen a single big beast, let alone a lion."

"Only the one you shot at, Mark," said his cousin.

"You don't seem as if you could forget about my mistake, Dean," said
Mark peevishly. "Here, I think I shall lie down and go to sleep."

"And forget all about its being your turn to take first watch?" said the
doctor, smiling.

"What, again?" cried the boy peevishly, "Oh, how soon the nights do come
round! Well, I don't have to go on duty for hours yet, so I shall have
my nap first. But I say, doctor, I thought that we should always be
seeing lions and elephants and giraffes, besides rhinoceroses, which
would come charging at the waggons whenever they saw them."

"I daresay you did," said the doctor quietly.

"And here we haven't seen one--nothing but those little--well, some of
them were big--bucks."

"Why, we saw a drove of zebras the other day."

"Yes, we did see them," replied Mark. "But I wanted to have a shot at
an elephant or a giraffe."

"Yes; I suppose you expected to find South Africa a sort of
over-abundant Zoological Gardens."

"No, I didn't," said Mark; "but I did expect that