into the
valley beneath; then a ridge of tumbled boulders; further down another
titanic pile, reft clean through the centre by a chasm, in whose jaws is
gripped tight the enormous wedge of stone which seems to have split it:
and so on, till the eye is tired and the mind overawed by the stupendous
grimness of these Dante-esque heights and valleys.

The adventure is in full swing now. Blachland and his strange guide
have been out several days, travelling when possible only at night, and
then keeping to the hills as much as practicable. And now they are
nearing their goal.

And, looking at it calmly, it is a strange adventure indeed, almost an
aimless one. The story of the buried gold Blachland is inclined to
scout utterly. But no amount of questioning will shake the faith of his
guide, and so, at last, he has come to believe in it himself. Indeed,
otherwise, what motive would Hlangulu have for aiding and abetting that
which, in his eyes, was nothing more nor less than a monstrous piece of
sacrilege? He knew that savages are the most practical of mortals, and
that it is entirely outside their code of ethics to go to a vast deal of
trouble and risk without the prospect of adequate and substantial
advantage to be gained thereby.

It had occurred to him that there might be another motive, and a
sinister one. Hlangulu might be decoying him into the most
out-of-the-way recesses of Matabeleland in order to make away with him
treacherously; and the idea was not a pleasant one, in that, however on
the alert he might be, there must always be times when a crafty and
determined foe could strike him down when off his guard. But here,
again, motive counted for something, and here, again, motive utterly
failed, as we have said. He could not call to mind that Hlangulu had
the faintest occasion to owe him any sort of a grudge, and, even if it
were so, he would not go to work in any such roundabout fashion to pay
it. There was nothing for it but to set the whole thing down to its
real motive, cupidity to wit.

To this had succeeded another idea. What if this concealed gold were
really there, and be succeeded in obtaining it? It was then that he
would have to watch his guide and companion with a jealous eye. For the
whole is greater than the half, and would this covetous savage remain
content with the half? He resolved to keep his eyes very wide open
indeed, during the return journey.

The return journey! It was rather