that looked as if some one had been standing portmanteaus on end all
over the bog, and leaving their impressions there.

Then there were buffalo tracks, and the footprints of innumerable other
beasts that had been to drink, or else gone on, making a complete
roadway in the direction of the big river.

Just then Coffee pulled Jack's sleeve and pointed to quite a
freshly-made series of footprints.

"Why, that's some kind of antelope," cried Jack.

"Yes, big bok--eland," cried Coffee. "Come along."

This was as good as saying that the animal had lately been there to
drink: and in fact its tracks looked surprisingly fresh, so much so that
the boys, after glancing at their guns, followed Coffee as he trotted on
ahead with his eyes fixed upon the footprints, which were here and there
so clearly-marked in the soft earth that he followed them at a run.

Knowing what he did of the habits of animals, and that the great
antelope might be many miles away by this time, Dick was about to
protest against such an exercise of speed, feeling that a slow and sure
progress would be the safest: but Coffee proved to be right, for before
they had gone half-a-mile, he slopped short and made signs to the others
to close up.

They were in a wooded tract of land sprinkled with bushes and fine
timber trees; and as the boys came up, there, about a hundred yards in
front, was a magnificent eland, and so great was the surprise of both as
they saw the size of the animal, equal in bulk as it was to an ox, only
longer and more gracefully-shaped, that they forbore to fire; when the
great antelope, catching sight of them, went off at full speed, and they
had to renew the chase.

Quite an hour elapsed before a sign from Coffee announced that he could
once more see the game.

This time both Dick and Jack were more upon the alert; and creeping
cautiously up through the bushes, they caught sight of the eland
grazing, just at the edge of a patch of forest about a hundred and fifty
yards away.

This they felt was a long shot at so large an animal; but it was
impossible to get nearer on account of the intervening open ground; so
kneeling together they took careful aim at the shoulder, and fired
almost simultaneously.

"Hit," cried Jack, as he jumped up and ran forward beyond the reach of
the smoke; but there was no eland lying in its tracks; and as the Zulu
boys came up, they made out that it had dashed through a patch of dense
growth, and there