.

"Well, Tobias got over his fever, obtained fresh oxen, refitted his
wagon, and started off again for his wonderful vlei. Hans and I could
not get away at that moment; but we meant to hunt in that direction, and
we promised to follow him up in a little time. He left a boy with us to
show us the road. In two months' time we had trekked up to the
neighbourhood of Tobias's great discovery, and then we received a shock.
We met his driver and servants returning with the wagon, and no master.
They told us that they had outspanned near the vlei--which they
themselves had never seen; that their master had started off alone up
the mountain next morning--he would never permit any of his boys to go
with him; and that he had never returned. They had waited and waited,
and had then searched for him in every direction without result. For a
fortnight this had gone on; and now they had given up the search, and
believed their master dead. Well, Hans and I took the men back with us
to the mountain again, and made a thorough search, and sent out parties
in every direction into the country round. We might as well have looked
for the Fiend himself; we never again found a trace of Tobias Steenkamp.
He is dead, undoubtedly, and his fate is wrapped in black mystery. How
he disappeared, where he went, I cannot say. We did find _spoor_ of a
man and donkey to the north-east. The man had disappeared, and the
donkey had been eaten by a lion. What _their_ mystery was, I know not
either. We found no trace of a passage up the grim mountain-walls where
poor Tobias had vanished; and as for the vlei itself, well, Hans and I
could make nothing of it. We never set eyes on it, and half doubted its
existence. We have always called it since `Verloren Vlei,' and by that
name we and our friends still know it. And yet Tobias was no fool; he
described the vlei very plainly to us more than once; and he firmly
believed in it. Allemaghte! yes, of that I am quite certain; and what's
more, he showed me the gold he had found there. It's incomprehensible."

"That's a queer story of yours, Koenraad," said I. "I wonder I never
heard you mention it before. How far away is this place you speak of?"

"About six days' journey from here, I suppose," replied Du Plessis; "and
it's a rough trek."

"Has any one else ever tried to discover this secret?" I went on.

"Two or three people only," rejoined the Dutchman. "Tobias's brother
and three other Boers