re we to do now?'

"What do you think, Mr. Blount? You have had more experience than
anyone here, and you are the most interested in our overtaking
these rascals. What do you recommend?"

"I don't know what to recommend," the settler said. "They have no
doubt done it to confuse us, in case we should follow so far, and
avoid being thrown off the scent the other side of the hill. The
band may really have scattered, and gone off in small parties to
different parts of the bush; or again, they may have scattered with
the understanding that they will meet again, at some given spot,
which may be ten and may be fifty miles ahead."

"The worst of it is," Reuben said, "I fear now that there is an end
of all chance of coming up with them, today; and now the question
of water comes in. If we could have caught them before nightfall,
the horses, having had a good drink at that stream, could have done
very well till we'd gone another thirty miles; but as that seems
hopeless, now, we must consider seriously what we had best do,
before we go any further. Does anyone here know anything of the
country ahead?"

There was a general silence.

"The horses can do very well, tomorrow, without water," Mr. Blount
said. "They will chew the leaves of this scrub; and can, if
pressed, hold on for even two or three days upon it."

"In that case," Reuben said, "let us go on. We will break up into
three parties. One shall go straight forward, the other two moving
to the right and left, each following the tracks as well as they
can. We will not go much beyond a walk. We have five more hours of
daylight yet, and the horses can manage another fifteen miles. I
will halt, an hour before it gets dark, and light a fire. The smoke
will be a guide to the other two parties, who should not be more
than a couple of miles to the right and left, and they will then
close in.

"If you can suggest any better plan than that, Mr. Blount, please
do so. Of course, I see the objection that the blacks may make out
the smoke, and will know that they are being followed."

"Yes, that is an objection," Mr. Blount said; "but the chances are
that they will know it without your telling them. It is more than
probable that some of them have remained behind, on the watch; and
that they will have signalled our coming, long ago."

"Dey have done that, sar," Jim, who was standing close to Reuben's
elbow, put in. "Jim saw smoke curl up from the top of de hill, just
when we tur