if a halt had not been called. But about midday,
after we had crossed the track from Blaauwildebeestefontein to the
Portuguese frontier, we came to the broad, shallow drift of the Klein
Labongo. It is the way of the Kaffirs to rest at noon, and on the
other side of the drift we encamped. I remember the smell of hot earth
and clean water as my horse scrambled up the bank. Then came the smell
of wood-smoke as fires were lit. It seemed an age after we stopped
before my feet were loosed and I was allowed to fall over on the
ground. I lay like a log where I fell, and was asleep in ten seconds. I
awoke two hours later much refreshed, and with a raging hunger. My
ankles and knees had been tied again, but the sleep had taken the worst
stiffness out of my joints. The natives were squatting in groups round
their fires, but no one came near me. I satisfied myself by straining
at my bonds that this solitude gave no chance of escape. I wanted
food, and I shouted on 'Mwanga, but he never came. Then I rolled over
into the shadow of a wacht-en-beetje bush to get out of the glare.

I saw a Kaffir on the other side of the bush who seemed to be grinning
at me. Slowly he moved round to my side, and stood regarding me with
interest.

'For God's sake get me some food,' I said.

'Ja, Baas,' was the answer; and he disappeared for a minute, and
returned with a wooden bowl of hot mealie-meal porridge, and a calabash
full of water.

I could not use my hands, so he fed me with the blade of his knife.
Such porridge without salt or cream is beastly food, but my hunger was
so great that I could have eaten a vat of it.

Suddenly it appeared that the Kaffir had something to say to me. As he
fed me he began to speak in a low voice in English.

'Baas,' he said, 'I come from Ratitswan, and I have a message for you.'

I guessed that Ratitswan was the native name for Arcoll. There was no
one else likely to send a message. 'Ratitswan says,' he went on, "'Look
out for Dupree's Drift." I will be near you and cut your bonds; then
you must swim across when Ratitswan begins to shoot.'

The news took all the weight of care from my mind. Colin had got home,
and my friends were out for rescue. So volatile is the mood of 19 that
I veered round from black despair to an unwarranted optimism. I saw
myself already safe, and Laputa's rising scattered. I saw my hands on
the treasure, and Henriques' ugly neck below my heel.

'I don't know your name