quickly into the horses'
footprints. Used as we were to the glare of the sun on the burning
sand, here it was literally blinding, and long before we reached the
farther side we were groping and stumbling like blind men. It was much
wider, too, than it had first appeared, and we were utterly exhausted
when at long length we reached the dunes again, and to our joy found
bush, and a few t'samma, most of them old and hard, but still enough
green ones to provide a scanty meal for the suffering animals. A
respite it was, but a respite only, and well we knew that we must push
on or return at once. Our water bags still held enough to keep us alive
a day or two, but we must find water or t'samma for the horses soon, or
it was evident they could not last. We threw ourselves down on the
burning sand, with a blanket stretched over a tiny bush affording scant
shade for our heads, and in spite of the roasting heat I slept the
sleep of utter exhaustion.

I awoke to find Inyati afoot, and intent on adjusting the blanket to
shade my face from the setting sun. I got up, aching and throbbing in
every part of my body, and parched with a thirst that the lukewarm and
already vile-tasting water from our skin bags did little to alleviate.

"Master," said Inyati, looking at me with concern, "take thou of the
bitter powder (quinine); and sleep again. Before morning I will come
back. For I must seek the pan I know of, where water may be found. This
cursed salt pan I did not see when I crossed before: the pan I know is
one of the others we saw the clouds rise from; which I know not? So I
seek the nearest, and if water is there, by moonrise I will be here
again. If not, and I must seek the farther one, then when the sun
stands a span high I will be back. Nay, better that I should go alone;
rest, master, and let the horses rest too, for if I find not the water,
our path will be a hard one!"

He shouldered his Winchester, and strode off, all my arguments failing
to persuade him to take a drop of our little remaining store of water.
I watched him striding away through the dunes till he was lost to
sight, then I turned to and made a fire and some food; for I felt weak
and ill and my head was burning. Then I looked to the horses, hobbling
them short in case they should stray though, poor brutes, they were too
worn out to be likely to do anything of the kind. Then I gathered all
the dry stumps and bush I could find, and made a fire, for lion and
leopa