ifth day we met no more, nor did I call at any farms--which,
at that length from the Bay, were few and far between--although we
occasionally sighted one in the distance to the right or left of the
track we were following.

On the twentieth day after my departure from Bella Vista, about an hour
after we had inspanned for the day's trek, which was to end with our
arrival home shortly before sunset, as we topped a slight rise the kopje
or hill upon which the house stood swung into view for the first time
since I had lost sight of it some three weeks earlier; but it was still
at such a distance that, with the house turning its shadowed face to me,
I could not distinguish it with the naked eye, and it happened that upon
that particular occasion I had forgotten to put into the voorkissie, or
wagon chest, upon which the driver generally sits, the telescope that I
usually carried with me upon such excursions. Nevertheless I knew that
my people would be expecting my return on that day; therefore, when we
outspanned about midday, instead of lighting only one fire, for the
purpose of cooking our midday meal, I caused three to be lighted, at a
distance of about one hundred feet apart, which was my usual method of
advertising my impending arrival, feeling sure that somebody about the
house would be on the lookout, and would see the three sparks of flame
and columns of smoke, we being by that time within some ten miles of the
place. At this distance I was generally able, in clear weather, to
distinguish the long, white front wall of the house standing out against
the purple shadows of the Great Winter Berg range, but on this occasion
I could not, although the day was as fine and the air as clear as usual
at that time of the year. Yet, strangely enough, the circumstance did
not strike me as being in the least peculiar or significant, although
Piet, my after-rider, made some passing reference to it. Later on in
the afternoon, however, when we had again inspanned, and had been
trekking for about an hour, it began to dawn upon me that things were
not quite as usual at Bella Vista. In the first place, of all our
flocks and herds which should have been grazing somewhere on the plain
or the foothills ahead, not a horn or a hoof was to be seen. Also, the
house looked different: it had the appearance of being not as high as
usual; I could not see the grey thatch of its roof; and the walls,
instead of being pure white, as they had been wh