d me up the Dyve Burn, but I bashed your face for you.'
Indeed, I thought I could see faint scars on his cheek.

The following night I had toothache, and could not sleep. It was too
hot to breathe under cover, so I got up, lit a pipe, and walked on the
after-deck to ease the pain. The air was very still, save for the
whish of water from the screws and the steady beat of the engines.
Above, a great yellow moon looked down on me, and a host of pale stars.

The moonlight set me remembering the old affair of the Dyve Burn, and
my mind began to run on the Rev. John Laputa. It pleased me to think
that I was on the track of some mystery of which I alone had the clue.
I promised myself to search out the antecedents of the minister when I
got to Durban, for I had a married cousin there, who might know
something of his doings. Then, as I passed by the companion-way to the
lower deck, I heard voices, and peeping over the rail, I saw two men
sitting in the shadow just beyond the hatch of the hold.

I thought they might be two of the sailors seeking coolness on the open
deck, when something in the figure of one of them made me look again.
The next second I had slipped back and stolen across the after-deck to
a point just above them. For the two were the black minister and that
ugly yellow villain, Henriques.

I had no scruples about eavesdropping, but I could make nothing of
their talk. They spoke low, and in some tongue which may have been
Kaffir or Portuguese, but was in any case unknown to me. I lay,
cramped and eager, for many minutes, and was just getting sick of it
when a familiar name caught my ear. Henriques said something in which
I caught the word 'Blaauwildebeestefontein.' I listened intently, and
there could be no mistake. The minister repeated the name, and for the
next few minutes it recurred often in their talk. I went back
stealthily to bed, having something to make me forget my aching tooth.
First of all, Laputa and Henriques were allies. Second, the place I
was bound for had something to do with their schemes.

I said nothing to Mr Wardlaw, but spent the next week in the assiduous
toil of the amateur detective. I procured some maps and books from my
friend, the second engineer, and read all I could about
Blaauwildebeestefontein. Not that there was much to learn; but I
remember I had quite a thrill when I discovered from the chart of the
ship's run one day that we were in the same latitude as that