ar planter whose estate, Mount Pleasant, was situate some fourteen
miles farther up the coast, on the other side of the Umhloti River.
This invitation Dick would fain have declined, for he was impatient to
begin the real business that lay before them; but Grosvenor was so
charmed with the country and everything that he saw in it, and
especially with the spontaneous kindness, friendliness, and hospitality
of its people, that he seemed in no hurry to rush away from it all and
bury himself in the wilderness. As it happened, neither of the young
men had any reason to regret the time thus spent, for their host, an
old-time transport rider, named Mitchell, had penetrated far beyond the
Zambezi in his younger days, was an experienced hunter, knew the
interior, its inhabitants, and their peculiarities as well as, if not
better than, any other man living, and was brimful of information and
hints absolutely invaluable to the new arrivals, which he freely
imparted. When told of the nature and scope of the young men's
projected adventure, however, he shook his head dubiously, and strongly
urged them to abandon the idea of attempting more than just a few
months' big-game shooting.

"Mind you," he said, "I strongly sympathise with you in your very
ambitious aims, ridiculous as many men would pronounce them, for I was
animated by precisely the same desire myself when I was a youngster of
about your age," turning to Grosvenor.

"By Jove! you don't say so?" ejaculated Grosvenor, surprised and
delighted to meet a man of such wide experience as Mitchell who did not
pronounce his plans chimerical; for it must be stated that thus far the
enunciation of those plans had been almost invariably received with
either covert or open ridicule. "Then," he continued, "do I understand
that you believe in the possibility of finding the site of ancient
Ophir?"

"Well--yes--you may understand me to mean that--in a general way," was
Mitchell's somewhat guarded admission. "But," he continued, "if you ask
whether I think it probable that you will discover either Ophir or the
mysterious white race which rumour has asserted to exist somewhere in
the far interior, I answer: Certainly not."

"The dickens!" exclaimed Grosvenor. "But why, my dear sir, why?"

"Well--if you will not be offended by my exceeding candour--chiefly
because I think you both much too young and too inexperienced to have
any chance of succeeding in so very formidable an undertakin