"I tell you, Mr. Preston, this is the most dangerous place in the whole country," continued McCann, "and you risk your life and ours by staying here."
"I can't help it if I do," replied Oscar. "I thought of that before I came to Africa, and you ought to have thought of it before you hired out to me. It is my business to go where the game is to be found. That's what I was sent here for."
"But just look at it for a moment," said McCann earnestly. "This fountain is the only water there is in the country for miles around."
"Exactly. I knew that when I came here, and it is just the reason I am going to stay. The game always comes where the water is."
"Yes; and so do the hyenas, leopards, and lions. The hyenas will rob you of your goats, the leopards will show a partiality for your dogs, and the lions will drive off your horses, and perhaps gobble you or one of your men up for dessert."
"If they do it will be our own fault," answered Oscar, who began to believe that his after-rider was not quite as courageous as he said he was. "It is our business to look out for things. Here is the wagon. Outspan under those trees, and have supper ready for me in an hour."
"You are never going out to hunt!" exclaimed McCann. "It will be pitch dark before you know it."
"I shall not go far," was the reply. "I want to shoot one of those secretary-birds before I go to bed."
As soon as the wagon came to a standstill Oscar climbed into it, and after putting the rifle he had carried all day into its case he selected from among his other weapons a heavy double-barrelled shot-gun.
With this in his hand, and a belt full of cartridges about his waist, he mounted Little Gray, all unconscious that the animal's speed would soon be tested to its very utmost, and rode out in search of a secretary.