for
her, and wondered if she would find him and what luck he would have with
the hunt that day.

Now it seems that Suzanne found Ralph and gave him my message, and that
they started together to look for buck on the strip of land which lies
between the seashore and the foot of the hills, where sometimes the
blesbok and springbok used to feed in thousands. But on this day there
were none to be seen, for the dry grass had already been burnt off, so
that there was nothing for them to eat.

"If mother is to get her meat to-day," said Ralph at length, "I think
that we must try the hill side for a duiker or a bush-buck."

So they turned inland and rode towards that very kloof where years
before Suzanne had discovered the shipwrecked boy. At the mouth of this
kloof was a patch of marshy ground, where the reeds still stood thick,
since being full of sap they had resisted the fire.

"That is a good place for a riet-buck," said Ralph, "if only one could
beat him out of it, for the reeds are too tall to see to shoot in them."

"It can be managed," answered Suzanne. "Do you go and stand in the neck
of the kloof while I ride through the reeds towards you."

"You might get bogged," he said doubtfully.

"No, no, brother; after all this drought the pan is nothing more than
spongy, and if I should get into a soft spot I will call out."

To this plan Ralph at length agreed, and having ridden round the pan,
which was not more than fifty yards across, he dismounted from his horse
and hid himself behind a bush in the neck of the kloof. Then Suzanne
rode in among the reeds, shouting and singing, and beating them with her
sjambock in order to disturb anything that might be hidden there. Nor
was her trouble in vain, for suddenly, with a shrill whistle of alarm by
the sound of which this kind of antelope may be known even in the dark,
up sprang two riet-buck and dashed away towards the neck of the kloof,
looking large as donkeys and red as lions as they vanished into the
thick cover. So close were they to Suzanne that her mare took fright and
reared; but the girl was the best horsewoman in those parts, and
kept her seat, calling the while to Ralph to make ready for the buck.
Presently she heard a shot, and having quieted the mare, rode out of the
reeds and galloped round the dry pan to find Ralph looking foolish with
no riet-buck in sight.

"Have you missed them?" she asked.

"No, not so bad as that, for they passed within ten yards