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Show I Continued from Preceding Page were only able to recover it by ; lone' and elaborate search. Then, ' after we escaped from tlic reeds and swamps, we found ourselves ' upon stony uplands where the spoor was almost impossible to follow. : Striking their, spoor again on softor ground we followed thorn down across great valleys wherein trees grew sparsely, which valleys were separated from each other by ridges of high and barren land. On 8: these belts of rocky soil our diffi-i diffi-i culties were great, but here twice we were tfut on tho right track by I I more fragments from the dress of Inez. At length we lost the spoor altogether; alto-gether; not a sign of it was to be found. We had no idea which way to go. "All about us appeared these valleys covered with scattered .bush running this way and that, so that we knew not which of them to follow fol-low or to cross. This thing seemed hopeless, for how could we expect to find a little body of men in. that immensity? Hans shook his head and even the fierce and steadfast Robertson was -discouraged. I walked to the top of the rise where we were encamped, and sat down alone to think matters over. Our condition was somewhat parlous. par-lous. All our beasts were now dentl and had been eaten, for of late we had met with little game-The game-The Strathmuir men, who now mustcarry the loads, were almost worn out and doubtless would have deserted, except for the fact that there was no place to which -they could go. Even the Zulus were discouraged, dis-couraged, and said they had corao away from home across the Great Hivor to fight, not to run about in wildernesses and starve. Plans, however, remained cheerful, cheer-ful, for the reason, as he remarked vactiouslv, that the Great Medicine was with us and that therefore, however bad things seemed to be, all in fact was well; an argument that carried no conviction to my soul. It was one evening toward sunset sun-set that I went away hus alone. 1 looked about me, east and west and north. Everywhere appeared the same bushclad valleys and barren -ises. miles upon miles of them. I lethought me of the map that old Zikali had drawn in the ashes and remembered that it showed these .valleys and rises and that beyond them there should be a great swamp, and beyond the swamp a mountain. So it seemed that we were on the right road to the home of his whito Queen, if such a person per-son existed, . But at this time I was not troubling troub-ling my head about white queens. I was thinking of poor Inez. That she was alive a few days before we knew from the fragments of her dress. But whore was she now 7 I stared about me helplessly, and as I did so a flying-ray of light from ' the setting sun fell upon a white patch on the crest of one. of- tho distant land waves- It struck mo that probably limestone outcropped at this spot; also that such a patch of white would be a convenient guide for any who were travelling across that sea' of bush. Further, some instinct within seemed tc pel me to steer for it, although I , had almost made up my mind to go many points more to the east. So, next morning I headed north by west; laying my course for that white patch, and for the first timo breaking the straight line of our advance. Captain Robertson, whose temper had not been bettered by prolonged and frightful anxiety, or by his unaccustomed total abstinence, absti-nence, Ssked me rather roughly, why I was' altering the course. "Look .here, Captain." I answered, "if we were at sea and you did something of the sort, I should not put such a question to you, and if by any chance I did, I should not ' expect you to answer. Well, by your own wish I am in command here and I think that the same argument ar-gument holds," "Yes," he replied, "I suppose you have studied your chart, if there is any of this God-forsaken country, and at any rate discipline is discipline. disci-pline. So steam ahead and don't mind me." Tho others accepted my decision without comment; most of them were so miserable that they did not care which way we went, also they were good enough to repose confidence confi-dence in my judgment. Well, we started for my white patch of stones which no one else had noticed and of which 1 said $L- ' "Next he staggered about, 'Wtiir waving his hands, cursing V and shouting." nothing to anyone, and reaching It by the following evening, to find, as I expected, that it was a lime outcrop. By now we were in a poor way, for we had practically nothing loft to eat. which did not tend to raise the spirits cf the party. Also that lime outcron proved to be an uninteresting unin-teresting spot overlooking a wide valley which seemed to suggest that there wore other valleys of a similar sort beyond it, and nothing more. Captain Robertson sat stern-faced stern-faced and despondent at a distance, muttering into his beard, as had become a habit with him. Umslopo-gaas Umslopo-gaas leaned upon his axe and contemplated con-templated tho heavens, also occasionally occa-sionally the Strathmuir men, who i cowered beneath his eye. Tho Zulus squatted about sharing such snuff as remained to them in economic eco-nomic pinches. Goroko, the witchdoctor, witch-doctor, engaged himself in consulting consult-ing his "spirits" by means 'of bono-throwing bono-throwing upon the humble subject of whether or no we should succeed suc-ceed in killing any game for food for to-morrow, a point on which I gathered that his "spirit" was quite uncertain. In chort, the gloom was deep and universal and the sky looked as though It were going to rain.' Plans became sarcastic. Sneaking Sneak-ing up to me in his most aggravating aggravat-ing way. like a dog that means to steal something and cover up the theft with simulated affection, he pointed out, ono by one, all tho disadvantages of our present posi- tion, indicating ner contra 'that If hi3 advice had been followed, his conviction was that even if we had not found the maneators and rescued res-cued the lady called Sad-Eyes, ojr state would have been quite different, differ-ent, since he was sure tltat the valley val-ley which he had suggested we should follow was one full of game, inasmuch as he had seen' their spoor at its entrance. "Then why did you not say so?" I asked. Hans sucked at his empty corncob corn-cob pipe, which was his way of indicating in-dicating that he would like me to give him some tobacco, much as a dog groans heavily under tho table when he wants a bit to eat, and answered that it was not for him to point out things to ono who knew overything like the great Watcher-by-Night, his honored master. mas-ter. At that moment I confess that much as I was attached to him I should have liked to murder Hans, who, I felt, believing that ho had mo on toast, to use a vulgar phrase, was taking advantage of my position posi-tion to make a mock of me In his sly, Hottentot way. I tried to continue to look grand, but felt that the attitude did net impress. Then I stared about me as though taking counsel with the heavens, devoutly hoping that tho heavens would respond to my mute ' appeal. As a matter of' fact they did. "There," I said, in my most icy voice, "is my reason, Hans," and I pointed to a faint line of smoke rising against the twilight sky on the further side of the Intervening valley. "You will perceive, Hans," I added, "that those Amahagger cannibals can-nibals have forgotten their caution and lit a fire yonder, which they have not done for a long time. Perhaps Per-haps you would like to know why this has happened. If so I will tell you. It is because for some days past I have purposely 4lost their spoor, which they thought we were following, and lit fires to puzzle them. Now, thinking that they had done with us. they have become incautious in-cautious and shown us where they are. That Is my reason, Hans." He heard and stared at me till I thought his little eyes were going to drop out of his head. But even in his admiration he contrived to convey an impertinence as only a native can, "How wonderful is the Great Medicine of tho Opener of Roads, that it should have been able thus to instruct the Baas," he said. "Without doubt the Great Medicine Is right and yonder those men-eaters men-eaters are encamped, who might Just as well have been anywhere else within a hundred miles." "Curse tho Great Medicine" I replied, re-plied, but beneath my breath, then added, aloud: "Be so good. Hans, as to go to "Umslopogaas and to tell him that Macumazahn, or, the Great Medicine, Medi-cine, proposes to march at once to attack the camp of the Amahagger, and here is some tobacco." "Yes, Baas," answered Hans, humbly, as he snatched the tobacco to-bacco and crept away like a worm. Tho end of it was that within an hour we were creeping across that valley toward the spot where I had 1 il seen tho line of smoke rising jJ against tho twilight sky. H Somewhere about midnight wo IH reached the neighborhood of thiB H place. How near or how far we H wero from it we could not tell, sinco the moon was invisible and,' H of course, the smoke was in the IH dark. Now the question was, what i should we do? Obviously there J jH would be enormous advantages in j a night attack, or, at least, in locat- IH ing the enemy, so that it might bo IH carried out at dawn before he jH marched. IH After a hurried consultation, it H was agreed that Hans and I should H go forward and see if we could lc Ijf cato the Amahagger. Robertson wished to come, too, but I pointed put that he must remain to look after his people, who, if he left rn- M them, might take the opportunity . M to molt away ' in the darkness. Also if anything happened to me H it was desirable that one white IH man should remain to lead the H party. Umslopogaas, too, volun-i , H teered. but knowing his character I declined his help. To tell tho H truth, I was almost certain that it IH we came upon the maneaters he i would accomplish a fine -but futile i IH end after hacking clown a number IH of savages, whoso extinction or es- ' IH cape was absolutely immaterial to ', ) jH tho rescue of Inez. H So it came about that Hans and H I started alone, I, to tell the truth, not at all onjoying the job. I sup- H pose that there lurks in my nature H some of that primeval terror of the H - dark which must continually have haunted our remote forefathers of H a hundred or a thousand genera- H tions gone and still lingers in the i H blood of most of us. I think that Hans guessed niy state of mind, since he suggested that he should go alone, adding, with his usual veiled rudeness, that he was quite certain that he' would do much better without me, since white men always made a "Yes," I replied, determined to IH givo him a Roland for his Oliver. "I have no doubt you would crawl under the first bush you "-.tie across, where you would sleep till dawn, and then return and say that you could not find the Amahaggar." Hans chuckled, quite appreciat-ing appreciat-ing the joke, and having thus mu-tually mu-tually affronted each other we started on our quest jH To Be Continued V " 0 , Copyrlgt, 1010, By Sir U. nider Jlaseaftf-.,;- J |
