More carefully aimed bullets from Bob’s rifle finished them instantly.
“Ready now?” chuckled Mr. Holton.
“Sure,” Bob answered. “That job’s over. Somehow I couldn’t leave without letting those hyenas and vultures have it.”
A little farther on, the adventurers came to a narrow trail that wound through the tall grass. As it headed in their direction, they followed it.
For the last ten minutes Bob and Joe had fallen to the rear of the safari. Now, when they returned to join their fathers, Mr. Lewis turned to them.
“Noko says there may be a native village a little farther on,” he said. “Howard and I think it might be best to make for it, because the blacks may be able to tell us of some big game in this vicinity. We’d like especially to have a fine leopard skin.”
“Leopard! Boy! Sounds exciting,” grinned Joe. “Here’s hoping we see one—or more, for that matter.”
They trudged on for over an hour. Then, when they were beginning to fear that no village was near, they rounded a bend in the bushes and found themselves facing a group of thatched huts.
“Came to it at last,” mused Bob. “But—where are the people? Looks like nobody’s at home.”
“Maybe they’ve gone visiting,” remarked Joe with a laugh.