two days after
we had left, and it was conjectured by the crew that you had been
concealed somewhere by old Jennings. Mr Lavie, it also appeared, had
gone off with you, and none of the party appeared to have been hurt.
That comforted me a little, but still I was very anxious and uneasy--the
more so because all inquiries at the Cape for a long time were wholly
fruitless."

"Ah, I was afraid you would be at fault there," said Warley. "I suppose
you simply heard nothing at all?"

"Very nearly that," said the captain. "Some of the messengers whom I
sent out did come back with a story that some white men with guns had
been seen in the neighbourhood of Elephant's kloof; but the Hottentots
living near about there denied, one and all, the truth of the rumour."

"The rascals!" exclaimed Ernest. "When you heard the truth of the
matter, sir, you must have been amused at their denial."

"Yes, afterwards," said Captain Wilmore; "but not at the time. I was,
in fact, almost in despair when Lavie here arrived all of a moment one
day, looking like a ghost returned from the grave."

"Ay, I am afraid you must have had a trying time of it, Charles," said
De Walden. "I have sometimes reproached myself for allowing you to go,
considering what the danger and exhaustion must needs be."

"You have no need to do so," said Lavie. "Whatever I may have undergone
has been more than compensated by our meeting to-day, not to speak of
the appointment which my kind friend has obtained for me. In fact, if I
had not undertaken the journey, we must have remained in hopeless
captivity."

"Did your Bechuana guide play false?" asked the missionary.

"No, I have no right to say so. Whether he would have been as faithful
as he was, had matters fallen out differently, may be a matter of doubt.
I half fancy he had received some private instructions from Chuma,
which he did not carry out, for what may seem a very strange reason. He
was frightened out of his senses by our dog, Lion!"

"Lion!" exclaimed Warley. "Why, he has been dead for weeks and months,
hasn't he?"

"Not he! He is as much alive as you or I. He is at one of the huts
along with Kama and Kobo at this moment."

"I thought I saw him swept away by the flood during that night on the
Gariep."

"So you did, I dare say; but he must have contrived to swim ashore.
Anyhow, we met him two days' journey from the Bechuana village, tracking
us, I fancy, by his instinct, and he would ha