its. It was
sanguine as to the completeness of their numbers when they should
meet. All but one was likely to be there if only Hood would come
all but one who had fallen out of the ranks. Hood was, somehow, I
think, more overcast by the thought of the one exception, than
rejoiced by the prospect of such a noble muster. Yet, as he
strode along the road, pondering the letter, his longing for
England seemed to grow amazingly. His stride lengthened as his
satisfaction deepened. Twenty miles gave him little trouble that
March forenoon and afternoon. He crossed the wide river in a
crazily perilous ferry-boat, forded a narrow one, and supped with
great content on his bread and cheese.

Meanwhile his carriers fell heartily to hungry men's rations of
bully beef and millet-meal. The rains had been heavy those two or
three days in that last week, as the rivers testified. Now the
clouds were closing up again, and the carriers shook their heads.
Their road was a lonely one. A kraal was some six miles ahead,
the railhead inn was almost nine. When they had gone on for about
a mile of their road, the rain began to come down heavily, just
as the night began. On and on they splashed through the pools and
currents of the wagon-way. Then the rain slackened. A red,
elusive light shone ahead in the dip of a hollow. It seemed a
wandering fire to Hood's eyes as the road twisted suddenly. But
no it was a humdrum wagon-fire of logs. They clustered round it,
chilly and dripping, his carriers and he. A voice called out to
them from the folds of a buck-sail above. A Mashona boy was
crouching in shelter there. He told them that his master was
asleep on the wagon. Hood tried a greeting to this master, but it
gained no answer. He began to take counsel with his comrades, as
they squatted by the fire. 'Wouldn't it be fine to sleep under
the wagon? Who wanted to tramp through a black night with perhaps
a pouring roof of sky above, and certainly a soaked mud floor
beneath?'

The carriers and he agreed to risk the storm (threatening even
now in the distance). Night-prayers were said by that gladsome
fire. Still, the larger of the two muffled shapes above made no
sign. Afterwards Hood's bed was made by the stretching out of a
strip of sailcloth. A blanket was laid over it, and a knapsack
crowned it as a pillow. Hood began to settle himself in with huge
content, a pipe between his teeth. One carrier wriggled himself
up beside him. The two others laid th