Dartmouth was as cheerful as ever, a mood that I could not altogether
share.

Before we sailed I wrote to Sir Alexander telling him exactly how things
stood, and so I think did his son, though he never showed me the letter.

At Durban, just as we were about to start up country, I received an
answer from him, sent by some boat that followed us very closely. In
it he said that he quite understood the position, and whatever happened
would attribute no blame to me, whom he should always regard with
friendly feelings. He told me that, in the event of any difficulty or
want of money, I was to draw on him for whatever might be required, and
that he had advised the African Bank to that effect. Further, he added,
that at least his son had shown grit in this matter, for which he
respected him.

And now for a long while I must bid good-bye to Sir Alexander Somers and
all that has to do with England.

CHAPTER IV

MAVOVO AND HANS

We arrived safely at Durban at the beginning of March and took up our
quarters at my house on the Berea, where I expected that Brother John
would be awaiting us. But no Brother John was to be found. The old, lame
Griqua, Jack, who looked after the place for me and once had been one of
my hunters, said that shortly after I went away in the ship, Dogeetah,
as he called him, had taken his tin box and his net and walked off
inland, he knew not where, leaving, as he declared, no message or letter
behind him. The cases full of butterflies and dried plants were also
gone, but these, I found he had shipped to some port in America, by a
sailing vessel bound for the United States which chanced to put in at
Durban for food and water. As to what had become of the man himself I
could get no clue. He had been seen at Maritzburg and, according to some
Kaffirs whom I knew, afterwards on the borders of Zululand, where, so
far as I could learn, he vanished into space.

This, to say the least of it, was disconcerting, and a question arose
as to what was to be done. Brother John was to have been our guide. He
alone knew the Mazitu people; he alone had visited the borders of the
mysterious Pongo-land, I scarcely felt inclined to attempt to reach that
country without his aid.

When a fortnight had gone by and still there were no signs of him,
Stephen and I held a solemn conference. I pointed out the difficulties
and dangers of the situation to him and suggested that, under the
circumst