ere I may state, however, that within a few days Marie and everyone
else in the camp knew the story in detail, except perhaps Marais, to
whom no one spoke of his nephew. Evidently Vrouw Prinsloo had found
herself unable to keep secret such an example of the villainy of her
aversion, Pereira. So she told her daughter, who told the others quickly
enough, though I gathered that some of them set down what had happened
to accident. Bad as they knew Pereira to be, they could not believe that
he was guilty of so black a crime.

About a week later the rest of us started from Marais's camp, a place
that, notwithstanding the sadness of many of its associations, I confess
I left with some regret. The trek before us, although not so very long,
was of an extremely perilous nature. We had to pass through about two
hundred miles of country of which all we knew was that its inhabitants
were the Amatonga and other savage tribes. Here I should explain that
after much discussion we had abandoned the idea of retracing the route
followed by Marais on his ill-fated journey towards Delagoa.

Had we taken this it would have involved our crossing the terrible
Lobombo Mountains, over which it was doubtful whether our light cattle
could drag the wagons. Moreover, the country beyond the mountains was
said to be very bare of game and also of Kaffirs, so that food might be
lacking. On the other hand, if we kept to the east of the mountains the
veld through which we must pass was thickly populated, which meant that
in all probability we could buy grain.

What finally decided us to adopt this route, however, was that here in
these warm, low-lying lands there would be grass for the oxen. Indeed,
now, at the beginning of spring, in this part of Africa it was already
pushing. Even if it were not, the beasts could live upon what herbage
remained over from last summer and on the leaves of trees, neither of
which in this winter veld ever become quite lifeless, whereas on the
sere and fire-swept plains beyond the mountains they might find nothing
at all. So we determined to risk the savages and the lions which
followed the game into these hot districts, especially as it was not yet
the fever season or that of the heavy rains, so that the rivers would be
fordable.

I do not propose to set out our adventures in detail, for these would be
too long. Until the great one of which I shall have to tell presently,
they were of an annoying rather than of a serious