valley.

No reply to this bombardment of the position was attempted. The enemy
were invisible, and there was no clue to their position far up on the
hill-side. So long as the rolling down of the rocks was continued, it
was certain that no attack at close quarters was intended; consequently,
after posting four sentries to arouse them in case of need, the rest of
the party, picking out the softest pieces of ground they could find
between the stones, lay down to rest.

Before doing so, however, Mr Harvey had a consultation with the
hunters. They said that the next narrow ravine was broken by several
lateral defiles of similar character, which came down into it, and that
it would therefore be quite impossible to keep along the top; whether
there were any points at which the enemy could take post and assail them
from above, they knew not.

There was, then, nothing to do but to push steadily on, and early next
morning they resumed their way. On the preceding day a slight shower of
rain had fallen, but this had been insufficient to increase notably the
waters of the streamlet which trickled down among the rocks, for the
most part hidden from view. The hunters were of opinion that heavier
storms were at hand, and Mr Harvey agreed with them in the belief.

"We are in a very nasty position, boys," he said, "and I wish now that I
had turned south, and made my way down to the Limpopo again, and kept
along its banks until past this mountain-range; it would have meant a
loss of two months' time, and the country which we shall reach when we
get through this defile is a very good one for trade. Still, I am sorry
now that I did not adopt that plan; for, what with the natives and the
torrent, our position is an extremely serious one; however, there is
nothing for it but to push on now. We have passed one out of the three
gorges, and even if the other two are in as bad a condition as the one
we came up yesterday, two more days' labour will see us through it."

As the caravan moved along the valley the yells of the natives, high up
on the slopes, rose loud and menacing. They must have been disgusted at
seeing that the labour upon which they had been engaged the whole night,
of loosening and setting in motion the rocks, had been entirely thrown
away, for they could see that the waggons and teams were wholly
uninjured.

As the caravan reached the point where the valley narrowed again, a mile
above the halting-place, they began