Page 162 - Adventures in Africa

£t He has brought it upon himself/' I remarked ;

“ here, Jan, take my rifle-str&p ; slip it round his arms,
and draw it tight,— be quick about it. Now, Harry,
get another strap round his legs/'

A ll this time Hans was struggling violently, with­
out uttering a word. Having succeeded in doing as I
proposed, we had him completely in our power* He

grinned fearfully and foamed at the mouth ; indeed,
he almost seized poor Jan's bare arm in his teeth, and

had not Harry given him a severe blow he would
have succeeded*
“ Now let's try to get him on his feet, and we will

then slacken the strap sufficiently to enable him to
walk, though not to allow him to run away/’ I said.

Hans was very unwilling at first to move, but at
length we got him to walk along, though he appeared
like a man in a dream,— not knowing what he was
doing, Jan assured us that he could find the way to

the water-hole, and we therefore proceeded in the
direction he pointed out. It was a question, however,

whether we should remain to shoot there, or, having
supplied our bottles, return with our unfortunate com­
panion to the camp. As he seemed strong enough to

carry the leopard-skin, we replaced it on his shoulders.
Every now and then he would attempt to run ; but the
strap round his legs quickly brought him up, Our

progress was of course very slow, until at length the
vlei was reachcd. W e passed on our way several
trees of considerable size overturned by elephants;

many of them being ten inches in diameter, it must
have required great strength to uproot them. Others

were broken short off, a little distance from the ground,