The police and the
commandos had been kept very secret, and, besides, they were moving on
the high veld and out of the ken of the tribes. Natives, he told me,
were not good scouts so far as white man's work was concerned, for they
did not understand the meaning of what we did. On the other hand, his
own native scouts brought him pretty accurate tidings of any Kaffir
movements. He thought that all the bush country of the plain would be
closely watched, and that no one would get through without some kind of
pass. But he thought also that the storekeeper might be an exception,
for his presence would give rise to no suspicions. Almost his last
words to me were to come back hell-for-leather if I saw the game was
hopeless, and in any case to leave as soon as I got any news. 'If
you're there when the march begins,' he said, 'they'll cut your throat
for a certainty.' I had all the various police posts on the Berg clear
in my mind, so that I would know where to make for if the road to
Blaauwildebeestefontein should be closed.

I said good-bye to Arcoll and Wardlaw with a light heart, though the
schoolmaster broke down and implored me to think better of it. As I
turned down into the gorge I heard the sound of horses' feet far
behind, and, turning back, saw white riders dismounting at the dorp.
At any rate I was leaving the country well guarded in my rear.

It was a fine morning in mid-winter, and I was in very good spirits as
I jogged on my pony down the steep hill-road, with Colin running beside
me. A month before I had taken the same journey, with no suspicion in
my head of what the future was to bring. I thought about my Dutch
companions, now with their cattle far out on the plains. Did they know
of the great danger, I wondered. All the way down the glen I saw no
sign of human presence. The game-birds mocked me from the thicket; a
brace of white berghaan circled far up in the blue; and I had for
pleasant comrade the brawling river. I dismounted once to drink, and
in that green haven of flowers and ferns I was struck sharply with a
sense of folly. Here were we wretched creatures of men making for each
other's throats, and outraging the good earth which God had made so
fair a habitation.

I had resolved on a short cut to Umvelos', avoiding the neighbourhood
of Sikitola's kraal, so when the river emerged from the glen I crossed
it and struck into the bush. I had not gone far before I realized that
something st