Perhaps I might have loaded and fired away for some time, but just at the moment the sheep came into my mind.
"They'll be carried away, thought I.

I had heard that such a thing was common enough.
"I saw that the antelopes were heading towards the valley--the foremost were already into it, and would soon be on the spot, where I had just seen our little flock feeding! "In hopes of yet heading the springboks, and driving the sheep into the kraal, before the former crowded on them, I started towards the valley.
But, to my chagrin, I could get no faster than the herd was going! "As I approached the creatures, to make my way through their mass, they leaped about and sprang over one another, but could not for their lives open a way for me as fast as I wanted one.

I was so near some of them that I could have knocked them down with my gun! "I commenced hallooing, and, brandishing the gun about, I was making a lane more rapidly, when I perceived in front what appeared to be a large open space.

I pushed forward for this, but the nearer I came to its border the more densely I found the creatures packed.

I could only see that it was an open space by leaping up.