scarce able to compass the means of existence; unknown
country swarming with enemies; what a fearful experience it seems!
Yet--how you will look back to it, will long for it! Ah, yes, I know;
for your experience was once mine."

"Once yours?"

"Once mine." Then, with sudden change of tone and demeanour--"And now,
be advised by me, and restore Nature a little. You will find the
wherewithal in that chest, for you may need all your strength."

Had it been anybody else, John Ames might have thought it somewhat
unhostlike of the other to leave him to do all the foraging for himself,
but somehow in this case it seemed all right. He could hardly have
imagined this strange being bustling about over such commonplace work as
rummaging out food. So he opened the chest indicated, and found it well
stored with creature comforts. He set out, upon the table which had so
startled him at first, enough for his present wants, and turned to speak
to his host. But the latter was no longer there. He looked in the
other apartment. That, too, was empty!

Weird and uncanny as this disappearance was, it disconcerted John Ames
less than it would have done at first. In was in keeping with the place
and its strange occupant, for now, as he gazed around, he noted that the
rock in places was covered with strange hieroglyphics. He had seen
Bushman drawings in the caves of the Drakensberg, executed with
wonderful clearness and a considerable amount of rude skill. These,
however, seemed the production of a civilised race, and that in the dim
ages of a remote past, probably the race which was responsible for the
ancient gold workings whereof the land showed such plentiful remains.
At any other time the investigation of these hieroglyphics would have
afforded him a rare interest, at present he had enough to think about.
But if his host--or gaoler--chose to disappear into the earth or air at
will it was no concern of his, and he had not as yet found any great
encouragement to curiosity in that quarter. Meanwhile, he set to work
to make a hearty breakfast--or dinner--or whatever it might be, for he
had no idea of time, his watch having been smashed in his fall.

Strangely enough, a feeling of complete confidence had succeeded to his
agony of self-reproach and anxiety as to Nidia's safety. Stranger, too,
that such should be inspired by the bare word of this marvellous being
who held him, so far, in his power. Yet there it was, this convic