Category: Adventure
It stands upon the southern bank of the latter stream, in a grove of Babylonian willows, whose silvery foliage, drooping gracefully to the water's edge, fringes both shores of the noble river as far as the eye can reach.
It stands upon the southern bank of the latter stream, in a grove of Babylonian willows, whose silvery foliage, drooping gracefully to the water's edge, fringes both shores of t...
2. CHAPTER TWO.I have said that the young yagers were encamped on the southern bank of the Great Orange River. What were they doing there? The spot they occupied was many a long day's journey...
3. CHAPTER THREE.Next morning, by break of day, our yagers were astir, and the first object upon which they rested their eyes was the river. To their joy it had fallen several feet, as they coul...
4. CHAPTER FOUR.If the young yagers had met with but few adventures south of the Gareep, they were not long north of it before they fell in with one of sufficient interest to be chronicled. It...
5. CHAPTER FIVE.On seeing the "gemsbok"--for by such name is the oryx known to the Cape colonists--the first thought of the young yagers was how they should kill or capture one of them. Beautif...
6. CHAPTER SIX.Certainly there was something mysterious about the matter. The lion still kept his position; no motion could be observed, no sound escaped him; whereas the lioness uttered inces...
7. CHAPTER SEVEN.Congo had now become an object of as great interest as in the morning. Greater in fact, for the new danger he was about to undergo--a combat with an enraged lioness--was account...
8. CHAPTER EIGHT.Before going to supper the hunters dragged the carcasses of both lion and lioness close up to the camp-fire. A good pull it was, but they managed it by attaching strong "rheims"...
9. CHAPTER NINE.The oryx next became the subject of conversation, and Swartboy could tell more about it than any one. Of the oryx Congo knew very little, as the region most frequented by this b...
10. CHAPTER TEN.On leaving the "drift" where they had crossed the Orange River, our hunters "treked" in a north-easterly direction. Had they gone due north they would soon have reached the rim...
11. CHAPTER ELEVEN.The object which now fixed the attention of the naturalist was a quadruped,--a very small one, not bigger than a medium-sized cat, but altogether different in form and proportio...
12. CHAPTER TWELVE.Hans, on returning to the camp, gave an account of what he had seen. All were interested in the relation, but particularly the boys Klaas and Jan, who were not over satisfied th...
13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN.Before retiring to rest, the young yagers had resolved upon a pleasant performance for the morrow--that was, a "surround" of the ostriches. They had planned it that Hendrik and...
14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN.After all, the young yagers were not to be disappointed in a chase. If the fox of South Africa gives but poor sport, there are plenty of other animals, neither so weak-limbed no...
15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN.As already stated, there were seven antelopes in the herd. One, an old buck, larger than any of the rest, and having horns over three feet long, was in the advance acting as lea...
16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN.The chase was now one of exceeding interest, and had become a simple trial of speed between horses, dogs, and antelope. The buck had kept on in a direct line, when the others br...
17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.He was mistaken, however--as he had reason to think the moment after-- when the antelope, instead of lying still where it had fallen, rose to its feet again, beat off the dog wi...
18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.For all that they were not idle--that is, they were not without something to interest and amuse them. Swartboy was the genius worshipped by Klaas and Jan, for there was no bird...
19. CHAPTER NINETEEN.It was not the process of mixing the arrow-poison, so much as the use to be made of it, that interested Klaas and Jan. They knew that the Bushman intended to try its effect on a...
20. CHAPTER TWENTY.The young yagers resolved to stay a couple of days longer by the fountain in the mokhala grove. Their object was to wait until the flesh of the blue-buck--which is excellent eat...
21. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.Hans and Arend on this occasion had followed the chase, and were almost "in at the death;" and Klaas and Jan, who from the openness of the ground had had a view of the whole run...
22. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.Next morning the young yagers slept late--because they had nothing particular to do. They did not purpose continuing their journey before the following morning; and on that day...
23. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.On reaching the edge of the grove they halted to reconnoitre, still keeping under cover of the timber. Congo had reported truly. There _was_ a flock of ostriches, sure enough. T...
24. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.He noticed that the cock that had been feeding apart from the rest had now got close up to them,--within a few yards; but that the others had arisen at his approach, and, stretc...
25. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.Next morning our party inspanned and treked over the desert plain in a north-easterly direction. They were two days in crossing it, and their oxen suffered much from thirst, as...
26. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.When they had got fairly within the boundaries of the blesbok country, the young yagers resolved to make halt for a day or two, and hunt these beautiful antelopes. Not that they...
27. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.They mounted. Klaas and Jan were permitted to take part in this affair. They would do well enough to "drive" the antelopes, while the other four would take stand, and receive th...
28. CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.On swept the blesboks over the level sward and on galloped Hendrik after them--his horse and dogs running at their utmost speed. For all that, not a yard could either hunter or...
29. CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.Hendrik's feelings at that moment were not to be envied. His reflections were sharply bitter. He felt mortified and humiliated. He wished he had never set eyes upon a blesbok. A...
30. CHAPTER THIRTY.Hendrik breathed freely, though he puffed and panted a long time after getting upon his perch. His mind was at ease, however, for he saw at once that the rhinoceros could not re...
31. CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.As the moments passed, Hendrik's thirst grew fiercer, and his impatience stronger. He had already examined the cliff above him--in hopes that he might have found a way by which...
32. CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.Next day the young yagers were witnesses to a most extraordinary spectacle; and that was, a vast herd of blesboks,--so vast, that the plains appeared literally covered with thei...
33. CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.It has been observed, that upon the plains of the zuur-veldt country, mountains of singular forms meet the eye of the traveller--cones, domes, square box-like masses with table...
34. CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.Although from a distance the mountain had appeared of smooth outlines, now, that they gazed upward from its base, it presented quite a different aspect. Loose boulders of rock,...
35. CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.It is not quite correct to say that they stood upon the summit. They had reached the top of the hill, but still above them rose the steeple-like rock which they had observed fro...
36. CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.In hopes of getting a shot at it on the wing, the boys crouched behind the boulders as it flew round, holding their guns in readiness. It passed them at too great a distance, an...
37. CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.The eagle dropped not far from the summit; and the boys, running down to the spot, found it lying quite dead, with the little klipspringer--also dead of course--still fast in it...
38. CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.On the third day after entering the plains of the "zuur-veldt," the yagers treked to the banks of a large river, and followed its course up-stream. The scenery was altogether ne...
39. CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.The bank upon which the yagers had encamped was about five or six feet above the surface of the water, as it now stood. The bank on the opposite side also rose above the water l...
40. CHAPTER FORTY.All eyes were fixed upon the beautiful animal as it approached the river. With light majestic step it advanced to the bank, and without pausing walked down the slope. It had no...
41. CHAPTER FORTY ONE.Although Swartboy and Congo supped upon the flesh of the waterbuck-- which is far from being a delicate venison--the boys had something better for supper. That was roast fowl, a...
42. CHAPTER FORTY TWO.As our travellers advanced up-stream, the wide level plains became narrowed into mere stripes of meadow that lay along both sides of the river. On both sides, and not a great di...
43. CHAPTER FORTY THREE.There were twelve lions in the troop--old males, females, and whelps of different ages! A terrific spectacle to look upon, in any other way than through the bars of a cage, or o...
44. CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.Just as on the other side, the road led through a succession of valleys, with groves of trees scattered over their surface; and as they proceeded, the mountain-spurs more freque...
45. CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.Of course Hans, aided by the others, immediately set about skinning the widow-birds, with an eye to their being preserved. Arend was his principal assistant, for Arend was cleve...
46. CHAPTER FORTY SIX.All eyes were instantly turned in the direction whence came the "skreek" of the bird, and there, sure enough, were a brace of rhinoceroses of the biggest kind. They were just en...
47. CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN.Fortunately for all they were not distant from their wagons when thus charged upon. They had advanced only a few paces before delivering their fire, and these few paces were all...
48. CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT.The next camp of the young yagers was fixed in a beautiful valley very similar to that in which they had seen the troop of lions, but of larger extent, and having its whole surf...
49. CHAPTER FORTY NINE.Groot Willem awoke from his nap before the others. It still wanted nearly two hours of sunset, and the hunter, observing a reddish object at a distance that looked like some ani...
50. CHAPTER FIFTY.Now it chanced that the sight of that great serpent was very gratifying to the eyes of Groot Willem--far more so than any antelope. The reason was, that a friend of his, a young...
51. CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.Groot Willem's adventure was acknowledged by all to be the most wonderful that had occurred to any of them--even surpassing that of Hendrik with the rhinoceros--and for a good w...
52. CHAPTER FIFTY TWO.In less than an hour from the time they had eaten the honey, the whole camp was in a state of the greatest alarm. Every one of the party was suffering from a parched throat, a b...