mba gachla_. Hasten
slowly, Macumazahn."

As there was no help, I took his advice. I could eat no food, but I
packed some up to take with us, and made ready ropes, and a rough kind
of litter. If we found them they would scarcely be able to walk. Ah! if
we found them! How slowly the time passed! It seemed hours before the
moon rose. But at last it did rise.

Then we started. In all we were about a hundred men, but we only
mustered five guns between us, my elephant roer and four that had
belonged to Mr. Carson.

CHAPTER XII

THE MAGIC OF INDABA-ZIMBI

We gained the spot by the stream where Stella had been taken. The
natives looked at the torn fragments of the dogs, and at the marks of
violence, and I heard them swearing to each other, that whether the
Star lived or died they would not rest till they had exterminated every
baboon on Babyan's Peak. I echoed the oath, and, as shall be seen, we
kept it.

We started on along the stream, following the spoor of the baboons as we
best could. But the stream left no spoor, and the hard, rocky banks very
little. Still we wandered on. All night we wandered through the lonely
moonlit valleys, startling the silence into a thousand echoes with our
cries. But no answer came to them. In vain our eyes searched the sides
of precipices formed of water-riven rocks fantastically piled one
upon another; in vain we searched through endless dells and fern-clad
crannies. There was nothing to be found. How could we expect to find
two human beings hidden away in the recesses of this vast stretch of
mountain ground, which no man yet had ever fully explored. They were
lost, and in all human probability lost for ever.

To and fro we wandered hopelessly, till at last dawn found us footsore
and weary nearly at the spot whence we had started. We sat down waiting
for the sun to rise, and the men ate of such food as they had brought
with them, and sent to the kraals for more.

I sat upon a stone with a breaking heart. I cannot describe my feelings.
Let the reader put himself in my position and perhaps he may get some
idea of them. Near me was old Indaba-zimbi, who sat staring straight
before him as though he were looking into space, and taking note of
what went on there. An idea struck me. This man had some occult power.
Several times during our adventures he had prophesied, and in every case
his prophecies had proved true. He it was who, when we escaped from the
Zulu Impi, had told me to ste