back.

I saw that it was a big wart-hog, and began to think. Pig, unlike
other beasts, drink not at night, but in the daytime. The hog had,
therefore, not come to drink, but to swim across. Now, I argued, he
would choose a safe place, for the wart-hog, hideous though he is, is a
wise beast. What was safe for him would, therefore, in all likelihood
be safe for me.

With this hope to comfort me I prepared to enter. My first care was
the jewels, so, feeling them precarious in my shirt, I twined the
collar round my neck and clasped it. The snake-clasp was no flimsy
device of modern jewellery, and I had no fear but that it would hold.
I held the pistol between my teeth, and with a prayer to God slipped
into the muddy waters.

I swam in the wild way of a beginner who fears cramp. The current was
light and the water moderately warm, but I seemed to go very slowly,
and I was cold with apprehension. In the middle it suddenly shallowed,
and my breast came against a mudshoal. I thought it was a crocodile,
and in my confusion the pistol dropped from my mouth and disappeared.

I waded a few steps and then plunged into deep water again. Almost
before I knew, I was among the bulrushes, with my feet in the slime of
the bank. With feverish haste I scrambled through the reeds and up
through roots and undergrowth to the hard soil. I was across, but,
alas, I had lost my only weapon.

The swim and the anxiety had tired me considerably, and though it meant
delay, I did not dare to continue with the weight of water-logged
clothes to impede me. I found a dry sheltered place in the bush and
stripped to the skin. I emptied my boots and wrung out my shirt and
breeches, while the Prester's jewels were blazing on my neck. Here was
a queer counterpart to Laputa in the cave!

The change revived me, and I continued my way in better form. So far
there had been no sign of pursuit. Before me the Letsitela was the
only other stream, and from what I remembered of its character near the
Berg I thought I should have little trouble. It was smaller than the
Klein Letaba, and a rushing torrent where shallows must be common.

I kept running till I felt my shirt getting dry on my back. Then I
restored the jewels to their old home, and found their cool touch on my
breast very comforting. The country was getting more broken as I
advanced. Little kopjes with thickets of wild bananas took the place
of the dead levels. Long before I reached