uit and river-bed and thorn thicket, every step of their flight had
been attended with peril. Discovery meant death--certain death. Even
were any trace of them lighted upon so as to arouse suspicion of their
presence in the minds of their ruthless enemies, detection would not
long follow. They could be tracked and hunted down with dogs, whatever
start they might have gained; and as for hoping to distance their
pursuers, why, a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and Nidia,
for all the fine healthy training she was most fortunately in, was
hardly a match, either in fleetness or staying power, for a pack of
hardy muscular barbarians. No; in superlative caution alone lay their
only chance of safety.

And, throughout all this most trying experience--trying alike in the
terrible strain upon the nerves, and the physical strain of forced
marches in the enervating heat of a sub-tropical climate, over rough and
fatiguing ground--how many times had Nidia noted with confidence and
admiration the consummate judgment of her fellow-fugitive; the
unflagging vigilance, the readiness of resource, and the tranquil
hopefulness which he threw into the situation. Never a moment did he
relax observation even in the most trivial matters, and his knowledge of
the country, too, was wonderful. The part they had to traverse was the
most dangerous part, indeed, through which their line of flight could
possibly take them, bearing, as it did, a considerable population. More
than once they would have to pass so near a kraal that the barking of
dogs almost made them think they were discovered; but the narrow escape
to which we heard him allude had occurred at about noon of the second
day after leaving Shiminya's.

The line of country they were traversing was rough and difficult--
undulating flats covered with long grass, and plentifully studded with
trees, but there was no avoiding it, and, indeed, every step, even here,
was fraught with the gravest peril, for they were in the neighbourhood
of quite a cluster of kraals. Poor Nidia felt as though she must give
up in despair and exhaustion. The flags of the coarse grass cut her
ankles like saws, and she felt as though she could hardly drag one foot
after another, and even the words of cheer whispered by her companion
seemed to fall on deaf ears. Suddenly the latter halted, listened a
moment, then Nidia felt herself seized, and, with a whisper of caution,
dragged down as though into th