to our direction, since standing up through the
mists of dawn with the sunbeams resting on its forest-clad crest, we
could clearly see the strange, tumulus-shaped hill which the White
Kendah called the Holy Mount, the Home of the Child. It appeared to be
about twenty miles away, but in reality was a good deal farther, for
when we had walked for several hours it seemed almost as distant as
ever.

In truth that was a dreadful trudge. Not only was I exhausted with all
the terrors I had passed and our long midnight flight, but the wound
where Jana had pinched out a portion of my frame, inflamed by the
riding, had now grown stiff and intolerably sore, so that every step
gave me pain which sometimes culminated in agony. Moreover, it was
no use giving in, foodless as we were, for Marut had carried the
provisions, and with the chance of Jana returning to look us up. So I
stuck to it and said nothing.

For the first ten miles the country seemed uninhabited; doubtless it
was too near the borders of the Black Kendah to be popular as a place
of residence. After this we saw herds of cattle and a few camels,
apparently untended; perhaps their guards were hidden away in the long
grass. Then we came to some fields of mealies that were, I noticed,
quite untouched by the hailstorm, which, it would seem, had confined its
attentions to the land of the Black Kendah. Of these we ate thankfully
enough. A little farther on we perceived huts perched on an inaccessible
place in a kloof. Also their inhabitants perceived us, for they ran away
as though in a great fright.

Still we did not try to approach the huts, not knowing how we should
be received. After my sojourn in Simba Town I had become possessed of a
love of life in the open.

For another two hours I limped forward with pain and grief--by now I was
leaning on Hans' shoulder--up an endless, uncultivated rise clothed with
euphorbias and fern-like cycads. At length we reached its top and found
ourselves within a rifle shot of a fenced native village. I suppose that
its inhabitants had been warned of our coming by runners from the huts
I have mentioned. At any rate the moment we appeared the men, to the
number of thirty or more, poured out of the south gate armed with spears
and other weapons and proceeded to ring us round and behave in a very
threatening manner. I noticed at once that, although most of them were
comparatively light in colour, some of these men partook of the negro
char