"Bah! This is Africa, not northern India. Let's get down and make a beginning. We had better get down through that woody rift." "I wish I'd got my six-jointed rod, old fellow." "But as you haven't, we must try what we can do with a line." "I say, it was lucky you thought to bring some hooks." "They were meant to try in the sea, old fellow, but I never had a chance. Come softly, and be on the lookout." "Eh?" cried the young man addressed, bringing the rifle he carried to the ready. "Boers?" "Oh no; our fellows are not likely to let any of those gentlemen approach. I thought we might perhaps put up a deer, antelope, buck, or something." "Venison roast, hot, juicy! Oh Drew, old man, don't; pray don't! You gave me such an awful pang. Oh dear! oh dear!" "Pst! Quiet! Don't build your hopes on anything, because I dare say we shall be disappointed; but still we might." "Ah, might!" said the young officer. "Oh dear! I thought we might get wounded, or have a touch of fever, but I never expected that we should run the risk of being starved to death." "Then give us a chance of escaping that fate by keeping your tongue quiet. If we don't get a shot at something down there, we may still hit upon a bag of fish." "Forward!" whispered the young officer, and together the pair approached the wooded gully and cautiously began to descend it to reach the river; but all proved to be silent, and in spite of their caution not a bush rustled, and their patient movements were in vain. "I did expect a shot at something," said the elder officer in a disappointed tone. "Venison was too much," said Bobby. "I expected it would be a sneaking leopard, or one of those doggy-looking monkeys." "The baboons? Oh no; they'd be among the rocky hills. But you need not be surprised, for this is the land of disappointments." "Oh, I say, don't talk like that, Drew, old chap," said the younger officer. "Fishermen have bad luck enough always, without your prophesying ill before we begin." "One can't help it out here. Hang it all! we've had nothing but misfortunes ever since we came. Now then, you sit down on that rock, and I'll sit on this." "Why not keep close together?" "Because if we do we shall be getting our lines tangled." "Of course; I forgot that. Here, you'll want some bait." The speaker took a small tin canister from his pocket, unscrewed the lid, and made by the help of his pocket-knife a fair division of some nasty, sticky-looking paste, which looked as if it would soon wash off the hook upon which it was placed; and then the two fishermen separated and took up their stations about fifty yards apart, the two stones standing well out in the rapid current which washed around them and proved advantageous, from the fact that they had only to drop the baited hook into the water at their feet, when the swift stream bore it outward and away, the fishers merely having to let out line and wait, watchful and patient, for a bite.