ave
every toil and danger, rather than continue to undergo it. He begged
that no attempt might be made at pursuit; because in event of their
being overtaken, they were resolved positively to refuse to return to
the Basuto village. Lastly, he assured Ernest, that if they succeeded
in reaching Cape Town, they would take care that steps were immediately
taken for securing his safe journey thither.

Having left this letter on the table, where it would be sure to be found
on the following morning, the two lads set forth under the bright
moonlight, and travelled in safety some fifteen or sixteen miles through
the night and into the next day, when the burning heat warned them that
it was time to rest. They started again an hour or two after sunset,
and again pursued their way through almost unbroken solitude, tracking
their way partly by the aid of Gilbert's compass, partly by their
recollection of Mr De Walden's information. So many days passed on,
until the whole of their store of provisions was exhausted, and they
were fain to supply themselves with anything eatable, which the desert
or forest could furnish.

But here they found, for the first time, their calculations fail them.
The plains they traversed were either wastes of arid sand, or ranges of
forest producing haak-doorns and kamel doorns and mimosas in abundance,
and occasionally sycamores and acacias, but none of the fruit trees they
had reckoned on finding. At the end of the second day, they were
obliged to expend some of their dearly cherished ammunition in firing at
a gemsbok, which came full upon them in one of the turnings of the
forest, and which they were fortunate enough to wound with the first
shot they fired, and kill with a second.

Collecting a heap of dry grass and wood, they succeeded, by the help of
Lavie's burning-glass, which had been the doctor's parting gift to
Frank, in lighting a fire, at which they roasted a considerable part of
the gemsbok's flesh, and having made a hearty meal upon it, stored the
remains in their knapsacks. A considerable supply of meat was thus
obtained, and for two or three days they fared well enough, especially
as there was a fall of rain, which gave them plenty of water.

But the line of country through which they passed continued as barren of
the means of supporting existence as ever, and they were presently
reduced to the same straits as before. They began, indeed, now to be
somewhat alarmed at their situati