"That is very difficult, my good little man," replied the American,
"very difficult."

"Perhaps we may try to approach than--those hissing antelopes?"
returned Dick Sand.

"Oh! you will not take three steps," replied the American, shaking his
head, "before the whole band will take flight. I beg of you, then, not
to trouble yourself."

But Dick Sand had his reasons for being curious. He wished to see, and,
gun in hand, he glided among the herbs. Immediately a dozen graceful
gazelles, with small, sharp horns, passed with the rapidity of a
water-spout. Their hair, bright red, looked like a cloud of fire under
the tall underwood of the forest.

"I had warned you," said Harris, when the novice returned to take his
place.

Those antelopes were so light of foot, that it had been truly
impossible to distinguish them; but it was not so with another troop of
animals which was signaled the same day. Those could be
seen--imperfectly, it is true--but their apparition led to a rather
singular discussion between Harris and some of his companions.

The little troop, about four o'clock in the afternoon, had stopped for
a moment near an opening in the woods, when three or four animals of
great height went out of a thicket a hundred steps off, and scampered
away at once with remarkable speed.