ld not blame ourselves for the occurrence, though
grieved at his sad fate.

We now purposed returning to our last camp, where we had left our fire
burning. Jan begged leave to cut off some pieces of the elephant's
flesh to cook for supper. This he did forthwith, in a more rapid way
than we could have accomplished the task.

Covering up the body of Hans with some thick bushes, we left it where it
lay, in order to prevent the hyaenas and jackals from getting at it, and
returned to our fire.

We had not long been seated round it, talking over the events of the
day, when Jan, starting up, declared that he saw the light of a fire in
the distance.

Harry and I looked in the same direction. There was no doubt about the
matter.

"Who can they be?" exclaimed Harry.

"Perhaps they are natives," I answered. "If so, we must be careful how
we approach them."

"I think it is more likely that they are our friends coming to search
for us," said Harry. "They will be surprised at our not appearing
yesterday, and may have pushed forward a party who, if on horseback,
would soon be up with us."

I at length agreed that such was probably the case, and we accordingly
settled at once to go towards the fire. We should probably, even at a
distance, be able to discover whether or not it was made by our friends.
Jan was of our opinion.

Having hastily finished our meal, we made our way in the direction we
proposed. On getting near the fire, Jan offered to go forward and to
bring word while we lay hid, so that we might retreat if necessary
before we were discovered.

When I was in the forests of Africa, I always remembered that while I
was stalking an animal, a lion or leopard might be stalking me; and we
therefore, while we waited for the return of Jan, kept our eyes about
us, and our ears open to detect the slightest sound.

We had longer to wait than we expected. At length we heard a rustling
of leaves near us, and Jan's voice exclaiming--

"Dey de Capt'n's party, and Toko, and two, three, Makololoes; dey all
got horses!"

This was good news. As we went along he told me that he had not
informed them that we were near, as he wished to give us the pleasure of
announcing ourselves.

In a few minutes we were in the midst of our friends, and our appearance
afforded my uncle great relief. They had come across our camp, and
found the bodies of the lions, and had some misapprehensions that after
all we might have been carri