That was a wonderful night to the two boys. Hour after hour they waited until the moon came up, and before them filed uncounted hundreds of animals. There were great droves of zebra, giraffes by the score, three or four rhinoceroses who plunged across the stream and vanished, herd after herd of gazelle, antelope, and wildebeest, and a magnificent drove of the cow-like eland.
Lions abounded, but the other animals paid them no attention, nor did the great cats come for game; they would appear, drink, and slink away, two or three even swimming across the stream. Toward midnight a number of oryx were seen, their long, black, sword-like horns mixed with a herd of zebra. So far not a shot had been fired, but without warning von Hofe raised his little sporting rifle and fired twice.
Instantly the game was off, with a great clicking of hoofs and startled snorts. The explorer and the two boys at once picked out their animals and opened fire. To his vast delight, von Hofe's oryx bounded high and fell dead; it was found that both bullets had gone through the heart.
Schoverling put down another oryx and a zebra, whose flesh the Masai delighted in, though it was too tough for the others. Jack and Charlie each dropped an eland, Jack wounding a hartebeest which got away in the rush. An instant later, only the thunder of hoofs dying away in the distance showed what vast herds had been there.
The next day they headed by compass for the northeast, which would take them into the supposed desert country, but clear of the great Lorian swamp. Here for the first time they began to be tormented by flies—great long insects such as the boys had never seen, and which rendered fly-nets necessary to their tents at night. Had it not been for them, the tents might have remained unused, for the whites needed them little and the Indians slept in the wagons.
Once they came to an outlying village of the Samburu—a nomad people dwelling farther south. Here they found not only cattle, sheep and goats, but herds of camels, which were kept for their milk and hair alone. These villagers knew nothing of what lay beyond, save that it was desert and uninhabitable.
So, with full water-casks, a renewed store of figs, cabbage-palm tops, and other vegetables, the safari pushed into the desert, going forward day and night. Charlie, much to his surprise and disgust, found that the Masai had little need for water, drinking the blood of game instead, "to make their hearts fierce." This, however, was a great saving to their supply.
There were many hyenas scattered over the district, and these the boys shot wherever found, as they are a perfect scourge and good for nothing. The earth was sun-baked, and the explorer declared that no water had fallen here for possibly a year or more, which the boys could well believe. The game gave place to giraffes, ostriches, and a few varieties of the plains antelope, so that each day they had to circle farther from the camp to secure enough.
Day after day they pushed forward, skirting at times the edge of miasmic swamps, and generally sticking to the desolate plain. They refilled their casks at occasional water-holes, and the oxen used little water on the march. Von Hofe made no comment, until two weeks of this had passed with no sign of approaching villages or elephant country. Then, one night, he gave voice to his thoughts.
