ore,
lying till he was roused by Dinny for breakfast.

"Has the General come back?" asked Mr Rogers, as he joined Dick and
Jack.

"No, father, and the boys are getting anxious about him. They're gone
off to find him, and I am expecting them back."

So said Dick, and as he spoke the two Zulu boys came running up in a
terrible state of excitement.

"Want our father," they exclaimed angrily. "Father killed. Come and
find."

There was something so tragic in the words of the boys that Mr Rogers
and his sons seized their guns, and telling Coffee and Chicory to lead,
they went straight for the forest-land towards which Coffee said he had
seen his father go.

Coffee was quite right, for the General had started off in this
direction, assegai in hand, and a kiri in his skin belt, partly to see
what hunting capabilities the land possessed, partly to try and obtain a
few birds or a small gazelle.

He went straight off to the forest, and with all the instinct of a good
hunter he examined the spoor of the animals going to and from the water,
and also made himself acquainted with the drinking-spots, taking in at a
glance the suitability of the places for a hunter to lie in ambush, and
then he went on once more.

To his great satisfaction, he found in addition to the spoor of
antelopes of all kind, those of the hippopotamus near the river,
elephants, giraffes, and the rhinoceros. There, too, he found an
abundance of footprints of buffalo, so that there would be ample game
for his masters to exercise their skill.

But he was not satisfied yet, and regardless at last of the coming
darkness, he went on with the instincts of the true hunter who has spent
the greater part of his life in the woods, searching here, examining
there, and he grew more and more elate and satisfied.

He had obtained nothing for the waggon larder, but that did not trouble
him, as he had made so many satisfactory discoveries; and at last, just
as the moon was shining brilliantly through the trees, he entered a
broad drink-trail, one used by the animals on the way through the forest
to the river, and prepared to make the best of his way back.

The course was pretty open, and he paused for a moment to listen whether
he could hear anything coming; but all was perfectly still, and he
started again, increasing his walk to a trot over the well-trodden
track, and this trot to a greater speed, when all at once he felt the
ground giving way beneath his fee