“Tired?”
“Thirsty,” replied the boy.
“That you must bear, then, till I come back.”
“Where are you going?”
“To fetch Jack and a span of bullocks. I won’t be longer than I can help. Keep Duke with you, but don’t leave the game. One moment: make a fire, and cook yourself a steak.”
“Stop and have some, Joe.”
“No time,” said Emson, and he strode away, leaving his brother alone with the great antelope and his two dumb companions.
“Well, I didn’t reckon upon this,” said Dyke, as he lay upon his side watching his brother’s figure grow slowly more distant, for he was walking beside his horse, which hung its head, and kept giving its tail an uneasy twitch. “Not very cheerful to wait here hours upon hours; and how does he know that I’ve got any matches? Fortunately I have.”
There was a pause during which his cob gave itself a shake which threatened to send the saddle underneath it, an act which brought Dyke to his feet for the purposes of readjustment.
This done, and feeling not quite so breathless from exertion and excitement, he walked round the great antelope.