CHAPTER X.. An Invitation Accepted--Another Buffalo--Preparing

AN INVITATION ACCEPTED--ANOTHER BUFFALO--PREPARING LUNCHEON IN STYLE.

Then from Winchesters the talk ran to other rifles. I suspected that this diversion was in order to avoid an answer to my invitation, and at the first convenient pause in the rifle-talk I again started to leave the tent. Thereupon Mrs. Roberts stopped me and said:

"It will give us pleasure to accept your invitation, and if the weather justifies we will call at your camp the day after to-morrow."

"Thank you very much," I answered; "it will give us great pleasure, and if the facilities of the country permitted you might expect a band of music to welcome your arrival. But as an orchestra is not to be had we must content ourselves with the resources of the country. May I ask at about what time we may look for you?"

"Oh, somewhere in the neighborhood of noon, I suppose," she replied.

"Will you do us the honor to take luncheon with us during your call!" I asked.

"With pleasure," the lady answered; "and we shall look for ice-cream, oysters, and all the delicacies of London and New York combined."

"Certainly," I replied; "all we have to do is to send to Delmonico's and Gatty's, and that we can do with the utmost ease."

This retort evoked a laugh from the twain, and under its cover I said good-day and retired.

I rode as quickly as I could to the place where my friends were engaged in hunting the buffaloes, drawing up at the tree under which we had left our horses the day before. Their horses were at the tree in the care of the Kafirs who accompanied them. I found that Harry and Jack had gone into the forest on foot and several shots had already been fired. Not wishing to run the risk of meeting an infuriated bull which one of them had wounded, and also unwilling to risk being shot while approaching the hunters, I concluded to remain outside and wait for developments.

I did not have long to wait--not more than fifteen or twenty minutes; a huge bull came rushing out of the woods and made across the open country, passing quite near the tree under which we were resting. He was followed by three or four other members of his herd, and this gave me an excellent opportunity for a buffalo-hunt on horseback.

Filling my belt with cartridges and taking my trusty Remington, I swung into the saddle and went after the bull that was leading the group. I tried to make out whether he was wounded or not, as I preferred to bring down game of my own and not an animal that, by the rules of South Africa, would belong to somebody else. There was no trace of blood on the spoor of the buffalo, and so I concluded that he had only been alarmed at the sound of the firing and possibly by a shot aimed at him which went wide of its mark.

I had no difficulty in getting alongside the brute. Evidently he had never been chased on horseback and looked upon man and horse as some sort of wild animal, possibly a modification of the giraffe, or perhaps a new kind of quagga or eland. In fact, he might easily mistake the horse for a quagga, as there is a strong resemblance between the two animals, and the man might be taken for an unusually large hump on the creature's back. At all events, he manifested no alarm whatever at my riding up alongside, but he did manifest a great deal of surprise when I sent a bullet into his side at short range. His surprise was momentary; he paused, gave a look at me, and then charged savagely in my direction.

I was ready for him and got out of his way. My horse evinced a good deal of terror as the brute rushed upon him, and made active use of his legs. The charge did not last long, and the buffalo resumed his course over the open country.

I ranged up alongside and gave it to him again, and then I saw the advantage that a Winchester would have been under the circumstances. I could have given him two or three shots before he had a chance to turn and charge, and two or three shots might have settled him where one did not.

He charged again, but this time his assault was feeble, his steps grew slower and slower; he paused, came to a dead stand, and then dropped to the ground! Another shot at the vulnerable point in his head finished him completely, and then I rode on in pursuit of the others.

I singled out a cow and hunted her down in the same way. By the time I finished her the others had disappeared in a great clump of hack-thorn bushes, where I did not care to follow. Hunting in hack-thorn bushes is terrible work on one's clothing, not to mention his skin. For making the visit already mentioned I had donned the best of my South African equipments, and as my call was to be returned two days later I thought it just as well to keep away from the hack-thorns.

I retraced my steps in the direction of the tree where I had left the horses of my friends. There I found that Harry and Jack had driven out another bunch of buffaloes, which made off in an easterly direction; they mounted their horses and went in pursuit of the game, and had been out of sight for some time, trending away to the eastward. It was no use for me to follow, as a stern chase would be a long chase and completely use up my horse, not to speak of his rider. So I gave the Kafirs the direction for finding the two buffaloes I had slaughtered, and then, after giving my horse a breathing-spell of a quarter of an hour or so, jumped into the saddle and jogged slowly in the direction of camp.

"Glory enough for one day," I remarked to myself--"a call upon those two charming women, and two buffaloes added to my credit. I don't know that I care for any more game just at present."

While I was meditating upon the events of the morning and also considering our menu for lunch, suddenly, on passing a ridge, I sighted a herd of elands.

I brought my horse to a stop instantly, and with my head just above the ridge surveyed the herd, which luckily had not seen me. By going back a little and then moving along parallel to the ridge I could come upon the herd almost within shooting-distance, and that is exactly what I did. The herd was feeding in a valley between two ridges, and before they were fairly aware of it I was upon them. I singled out the finest of the animals, which was also one of the nearest, and in less than fifteen minutes from the time I first sighted the herd the creature was lying dead at my feet. Had I followed them up it is quite likely I might have bagged another, but I repeated to myself my previous assertion--"Glory enough for one day." After marking the spot where the eland lay by tying a piece of rag (torn from my shirt) to the nearest thorn-bush, I again resumed my journey toward camp, and this time I reached it.

It was two or three hours after I got to camp before my friends returned. They had had good luck, both on foot and on horseback, Harry having killed three buffaloes and Jack two. They had a run after elands. I could not tell from their description whether it was the herd from which I had made a selection or not, but they were not as fortunate as I, not getting near enough for a shot. Altogether we made a very good day's sport, and when our closing meal of the day was ready we partook of it with a hearty relish. The old adage says that hunger is the best sauce, and we were hungry enough to have eaten a slice out of a lion.

And this reminds me that a lion is not such bad eating after all. One naturally has a prejudice against it, as the lion belongs to the feline race, and outside of China cats are not popular as food-material. I tried lion one day, principally for the reason that there was nothing else to eat and I had just shot one of the so-called "kings of beasts." It tasted somewhat like veal, but was tougher, and also had a cattish flavor to it. I had some steaks cut from the lion and broiled over the coals, and the next morning had a stew made from the lion's flesh. The conclusion I reached was that stewed lion is better than broiled lion, as the stewing rids the flesh of the feline bouquet. If any reader of this story should have occasion to dine upon the flesh of this animal I recommend that he have it stewed or boiled, and well boiled too.

Harry and Jack were delighted when I told them of the visit that was promised to us. They immediately began making plans for the luncheon, and to put the camp in order for our fair callers. Harry ran over the inventory of his clothes and finally decided that he would don his best hunting-suit, inasmuch as he had no other except his every-day one, which was very much dilapidated. The best one was not a great deal better than the worst. As for white shirts and collars, there was nothing of the kind in our outfit; neither was there a tall hat among the three of us.

Jack's outfit and mine were very much the same as Harry's, so that there was nothing to boast of. We had our best suits carefully and severely dusted, and fished out some checked hunting-shirts which had not yet been worn.

"We're ahead of any other African hunters, I believe," said Jack, as the garments were unfolded. "I don't believe there's one in fifty that can show a clean shirt after he's been out a month from civilization."

"And a good many of them," said Harry, "can't show any shirt at all, when you come to that. We're mighty lucky to have such a splendid wardrobe. Wouldn't be a bad idea to start a clothing-store, even with our limited stock."

The question of dress being settled, there arose the momentous one of the menu for luncheon. Jack said that we would paralyze them on that, and he would apply the stroke of paralysis.

This he said with a shake of the head which intimated that he knew what he was talking about. I could not make out what he was driving at, and waited patiently for the result.

We were up early the next morning, and all three set about preparations for the lunch of the next day. We cleaned out the tent and made it as presentable as possible; and by the time we were through with our work we all admitted that it had never yet been as orderly as it was then. We had three iron camp-stools and sundry chests and boxes, and we had a table, circular in form, around the center-pole. The table perplexed us, as it would seat three comfortably and four fairly well, but five around that table made altogether too close sitting.

"What's the matter," said Jack, "with ranging our two wagons side by side, and stretching the canvas cover from one wagon to the other, so as to form a big awning? Then, by means of chests and boxes, we can rig up a table under this awning, and have much more room than in the tent. We can use the tent as a reception-room, and when luncheon is ready we'll adjourn to the dining-saloon."

Harry and I accepted the suggestion as a capital one, and it was immediately acted upon. The position of the wagons was changed, the ground beneath them was cleaned up and leveled, and the wagon-cover stretched across. We carpeted the ground with skins of some of the animals we had killed, and altogether made a very comfortable dining-hall. Jack abandoned his idea of piling up boxes to form a table, and instead of that he fashioned a temporary table out of the covers of some of the boxes, supported on sticks driven into the ground, and connected by means of cross-sticks. We were at a loss for a table-cover, but improvised one from a piece of canvas that had been brought along for mending the tent in case of its injury.

These preparations were complete by a little past noon, or enough so to make it easy to finish them in a little while. We took a slight luncheon and then went out hunting, I in pursuit of gemsbok--in which I was successful--Harry after a young buffalo, and Jack in search of vegetable provender. Jack said that a salad was necessary for a fashionable luncheon; he had seen a plant growing on the bank of the river which he thought resembled lettuce. He said he would get a quantity of the stuff and eat heartily of it that night; if it did not kill him by morning he would consider it a safe material for the concoction of the salad.

When he brought the vegetable into camp Harry and I were struck with its resemblance to lettuce. Jack said that the sea-cows ate freely of it, and therefore it was not poisonous to them. "But then, you know," he continued, "what a sea-cow can eat and what we can eat may be two different things. A sea-cow looks as if it could eat a sewing-machine or a cotton-loom without impairing its digestion, and so it's necessary to make an experiment. I'll give the lettuce to one of the oxen and eat some myself."

I can add that neither the ox nor Jack was injured in the least by the South African lettuce; so we added it to our bill of fare, not only for that day, but for many a day thereafter, whenever we could find it.