Farther away, the brick color changed to gray and, still
beyond, to misty purple. Before them rolled the open, khaki-colored
veldt dotted in one direction by a ragged spot of black that flowed
over the crest of each ridge and vanished from sight for a moment
before rising from the hollow to flow over the crest of the ridge
beyond. And towards the ragged spot of black there rushed onward, at
an ever-lessening distance, the khaki-colored streak of the foremost
rank of C Squadron, led for the moment by a little gray broncho
whose hoofs touched the ground only to spurn it backwards.
The chase was long and hot; but the end was in sight. Directly
across the path of the quarry stretched a low line of willows
showing the course of the stream beneath, and, a few hundred feet
this side of the willows, scattered clumps of green marked as many
scattered dwellings. By the largest clump, the quarry halted and
turned to bay, and the pursuers, unable to check their speed, rode
down upon it and crashed through its ranks, regardless of the
pitiless. fire, then, sweeping around on the arc of a mammoth
circle, took up their position in the shelter of a walled kraal,
only a few hundred yards away.
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