CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
DRIVING THE BLESBOKS.
All now returned to their horses. Groot Willem's plan was next to betried.
They mounted. Klaas and Jan were permitted to take part in this affair.They would do well enough to "drive" the antelopes, while the otherfour would take stand, and receive them as they came up.
All six rode off towards the herd, which, during the stalk, had movedseveral miles across the plain.
When as near as they might safely go, without causing the animals totake the alarm, Klaas and Jan were sent to one side, while the stand-mentook the other, going to their places by a wide circuit. Of coursetheir horses enabled them to get to their positions in a very littletime. It was not necessary that these should be near the herd. As soonas they should conceal themselves behind the hills, Klaas and Jan wereto drive the game up; and they were instructed to do so gently, andwithout causing the bucks to break into flight. The lads were huntersenough to manage that point.
The four having got round to that side of the herd opposite to where thedrivers had been sent, tied their bridles together, and, leaving theirhorses, walked towards the herd. They deployed from each other as theywent, so as to cover a good stretch of the plain, and then each choosingan ant-hill, knelt down behind it.
There could be no mistake now. The antelopes, driven by Klaas and Jan,would come their way; springboks certainly would; and then, "crack!crack!" would go the rifles, and "bang!" Groot Willem's roer.
This gentleman was in particularly high glee. He had recommended thismode in opposition to Hans and Arend; but he did not mind that, for hehad rather a contemptuous opinion of the hunter-craft of these two"yagers;" but what he thought of was, that Hendrik had opposed it, andshould it prove successful after that opposition, it would be a featherin Groot Willem's _hat_.
That it would succeed he had little doubt. They were all nicely placed.The two boys had got round to the opposite side of the herd, and oncethese showed themselves a little nearer, the antelopes would faceround--they were browsing _towards_ the side to which the boys had beensent--and feed in the direction of the concealed hunters. Springbokswould do so, said Groot Willem to himself.
But springboks are not blesboks. They differ not only in size andcolour, but in many of their habits; and just by a difference in one ofthese last was Groot Willem destined to disappointment. A curious habitthey have--and one which is shared by a few other animals, both of theantelope and deer species--knocked all Groot Willem's fine calculationsinto "pie."
Instead of turning when Klaas and Jan approached them from the oppositeside, as all expected they would do, the stubborn creatures would not beturned, but kept on most determinedly in their original course. It istrue that they swerved a little to _get past_ the boys; but as soon asthey were fairly beyond them, they headed once more in the samedirection as before.
Klaas and Jan were at some distance from each other, so as to make awider front to the drive; but for all that, the blesboks swept past bothat such a distance as to give no chance for a bullet, even though sentfrom the long roer. Neither of the boys fired, as they had been toldnot to do; and as both behaved discreetly and quietly, the antelopes,after galloping some distance to their rear, slackened their pace, andagain commenced browsing.
Groot Willem felt considerably chagrined at the result, and got welllaughed at by both Hans and Arend; but what annoyed him still more was aword or two uttered by the rival hunter.
"I knew," said Hendrik emphatically--"I knew it wouldn't do. Do youtake blesboks for sheep, to be driven about by a pair of boys mounted onponies? Bah!"
This was a terrible cut for Groot Willem; but he replied to it byalleging that his plan had not had a fair trial. It was now plain toall that the blesboks _fed up wind_; and, therefore, the _stand-men_should have headed them instead of the _drivers_.
"Let us try it that way. I'll warrant you we'll succeed. If we don't,then we can do as _Master_ Hendrik recommends; and we'll see how _his_plan, which is no plan at all, may answer."
There was a slight touch of sarcasm in Groot Willem's tone when hereferred to Hendrik, and the emphasis on the "Master," partook stronglyof the character of a sneer counter to _his_ which Hendrik had given.
There could be no objection to try the thing over again, according tothe mode suggested by Groot Willem; and they all assented to hisproposal. It _was_ plain that the blesboks ran in the "wind's eye,"else they never would have "run the gauntlet" against Klaas and Jan, asthey had done. Such being the case, the hunters, by laying in wait towindward, would have a decided advantage, and, properly placed, couldnot fail to reach some of the advancing herd.
Should the scheme turn out differently, then they could follow Hendrik'sadvice, and ride _tail-on-end_ upon the blesboks.
With these ideas, the four galloped away to one side, and, making a wide_detour_, headed the game. Klaas and Jan were left in the rear tofollow it up, and force it gently forward.
In good time the stand-men were again placed, and watched the advancingantelopes with interest. The "blaze" upon their faces appeared largerand larger, and their broad, white muzzles gleamed in the eyes of thehunters, almost within range of their guns. But at this moment, theanimals raised their graceful necks, uttered a strange, snorting cry,and then, instead of turning to fly back, bounded right forward!
Surely they were coming within range, thought every one, as he kneltwith ready firelock behind his sheltering mound. "Good!" muttered GrootWillem to himself. "I'll turn the laugh upon the whole of them--that Ishall."
But Groot Willem was destined once more to a humiliating disappointment.As the blesboks came under the lee of each hill that covered a hunter,they suddenly swerved, and swept round him at such a distance as torender shooting at them a perfectly ridiculous thing. Groot Willem hadlevelled his roer for a chance shot, when he thought of the unpleasantconsequences of a "miss;" and reluctantly bringing down his piece hepermitted the blesboks to sweep past.
In a few seconds the herd was far beyond the place where they had passedthe hunters; but as no assault had been made upon them, and no gunfired, they quieted down after a while, and once more commencedbrowsing.
Hendrik was now the proud man of the hour. He would show them how theslow creatures could be galloped into. He would run half-a-dozen ofthem down before they could clear out of the plain.
"Come on!"
All once again mounted their horses, and rode briskly towards the herd.When near, they moved more slowly and quietly, so as not to startlethem.
As soon as they had got within the usual distance of four hundred yards,the bucks moved forward; and then came the "view hilloa!" The dogs werelet slip, the horses sprang forward, and the chase swept wildly over theplain.
They had not galloped a mile, before Hendrik discovered his mistake.Both dogs and horses were distanced by the swift antelopes, and bothlagged far behind.
One by one the hunters fell into the rear, and drew up their foamingsteeds; and in less than twenty minutes time, Hendrik alone, and one ortwo of the best dogs, held on.
Hans and Arend, believing that it was a hopeless chase for their horses,gave it up; and Groot Willem _did not wish to succeed_! Of course,Klaas and Jan were with the hindmost; and they all sat in their saddles,watching first the purple backs of the bucks, and then the head andshoulders of Hendrik disappearing among the distant ant-hills!