y
he had killed. Sometimes the vultures guided them to it. When the
"tao" chanced to be on the spot, or had not yet finished his meal, his
trackers would wait, until he had taken his departure, after which they
would steal up and appropriate what remained of the spoil. Often this
would be the half, or perhaps three parts of some large animal, which
they might have found a difficulty in killing for themselves.

Knowing the lion will rarely attack them, the Bushmen are not much
afraid of these animals. On the contrary, they rather rejoice at seeing
them numerous in their district, as they are then provided with hunters
able to _furnish_ them with food!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE TRAVELLERS BENIGHTED.

Our travellers would have talked much more about lions, but for the
condition of their horses. This made them feel uneasy. With the
exception of a few hours grazing, the poor brutes had been without food
since the appearance of the locusts. Horses do not travel well upon
soft grass, and of course they were now suffering severely.

It would be far in the night before the horsemen could reach the camp--
although they were pushing on as fast as the horses could travel.

It was quite dark, when they arrived at the spot where they had halted
the previous evening. In fact, it was very dark. Neither moon nor
stars were to be seen in the sky; and thick black clouds covered the
whole canopy of the heavens. It looked as though a rain-storm might be
expected--still no rain had as yet fallen.

It was the intention of the travellers to halt at this place, and let
their horses graze a while. With this view they all dismounted; but,
after trying one or two places, they could find no grass!

This appeared strange, as they had certainly observed grass at that very
spot the day before. Now there was none!

The horses put their noses to the ground, but raised them up again,
snorting as they did so, and evidently disappointed. They were hungry
enough to have eaten grass had there been any, for they eagerly snatched
at the leaves of the bushes as they passed along!

Had the locusts been there also? No. The mimosa-bushes still retained
their delicate foliage, which would not have been the case had the
locusts visited the spot.

Our travellers were astonished that there was no grass. Surely there
was some the day before? Had they got upon a new track?

The darkness prevented them from having a view of the ground; ye