By the time the horses had been saddled and watered at the fountain Oscar and his after-rider were ready to mount them. The honey-bird, which had watched their movements with every appearance of interest, showed his delight at the prospect of a hunt as plainly as the dogs did.
The latter frisked about in dangerous proximity to Little Gray's feet, and the bird flitted from tree to tree, keeping a short distance in advance of the horsemen, and coming back now and then to hover before their faces, as if urging them to greater speed.
He led them around the grove, and on arriving at the opposite side took wing and flew across the open plain to a second grove, about a quarter of a mile away. From this grove he led them to another; but instead of keeping them in the outskirts he flew into it and was lost to view.
Oscar fanned himself with his hat, looked suspiciously at the thick bushes before him, and took time to reflect.
"I don't much like the looks of such thickets as these, for I have always found something in them," said he to himself. "What shall I find in this one, I wonder? Hunt 'em up, dogs! If there is anything in there drive it out. Come on, Thompson!"
The Kaffir touched the ground almost as soon as his employer did, and kept close at his heels as he worked his way into the thicket in pursuit of the honey-bird.
CHAPTER XXVII. A SCRAP OF EVIDENCE.
Oscar had often told himself that the Dutchmen who first settled in Africa must have had a keen sense of the fitness of things when they named these bushes "wait-a-bits." They were as full of thorns as a rosebush. The thorns were two or three inches in length, and the ends were turned down into little hooks that were both sharp and strong. They were continually pulling off his hat or catching in his clothing, and then he was obliged to "wait a bit" before he could extricate himself from their grasp. How the Kaffir managed it, with his bare feet and no clothes at all on worth speaking of, was a mystery; but he got through somehow, and he did not make half as much fuss about it as Oscar did.