there sure enough they had found it.

"I confess I could see nothing myself when the tracker first got off;
but half a glance was enough for him; and on he went like a blood-hound,
with his black muzzle close to the ground, the rest of us keeping a bit
behind and well on one side. Presently there's a foot-print I can see
for myself, then more that I simply couldn't, then another plain one;
and this time Billy--they're all called Billy--simply jumped with joy.
At least I thought it was with joy, till I saw him pointing from his own
marks to the others, and shaking his black head. Both prints were about
the same depth.

"'Him stamp,' says Billy. 'What for him stamp?'

"But we pushed on and came to some soft ground where any white fool
could have run down the tracks; and presently they brought us to a
fence, which we crossed by strapping down the wires and leading our
horses over, but not where Rigden had led his. Well, we lost the tracks
eventually where Rigden said he'd lost them, at what they're pleased to
call a 'tank' in these parts; the black fellow went round and round the
waterhole, but devil another footmark could he find. So then we went
back on the tracks we had found. And presently there's a big
yabber-yabber on the part of William, who waddles about on the sides of
his feet to show his bosses what he means, and turns in his toes like a
clown.

"Well, I asked the sergeant what it was all about; but he wouldn't tell
me. And it was then that this fellow Spicer began to play the fool: he
had smelt the rat himself, I suppose. He made a still greater ass of
himself at the fence, where the blackfellow messed about a long time
over Rigden's marks when we got back there. After that we all came
marching home, or rather riding hell-to-leather. And the fun became fast
and furious; so to speak, of course; for I needn't tell you it was no
fun for me, Moya."

"Quite sure? Well, never mind; go on."

"There was no end of a row. Harkness and Myrmidons entered the barracks,
and Spicer ordered them out. They insisted on searching Rigden's room.
Spicer swore they shouldn't, and appealed to me. What could I do, a mere
visitor? I remonstrated, advised them to wait, and so forth; further
resistance would have been arrant folly; yet that madman Spicer was for
holding the fort with the station ordnance!"

"Go on," said Moya again: she had opened her lips to say something else,
but the obvious soundness of Theodore's position ca