“‘That is reitbok,’ he said: ‘where reitbok is, there are reits (reeds); where reits, there wasser.’
“I saw his reasoning, and that it was not likely that a reitbok would be very far from water.
“This hope gave me fresh strength to go on: we followed the slight traces of this buck, and soon came to a regular beaten track that the buck had made in going to and returning from water. We soon came to the vlei: there was not much water, but still it was worth more than gold to me; I drank as I never drank before.
“We stopped beside it all night, and I began to feel hungry, and to want something more than the dry biltong; when, just at daybreak, a reitbok came to drink; Karl was going to shoot him, but I would not let him, explaining that it appeared as though Providence had sent the buck yesterday to save us from dying of thirst.
“‘Perhaps He sent him to-day to save us from dying of hunger too, bas,’ was Karl’s irreverent answer. He was, however, allowed to retreat unharmed.
“After four days’ travelling on foot, I came to fresh waggon-spoor; we followed it up, when I found it was Eus and Maritz returning from a shooting-journey. They had some spare oxen, which they lent me; I returned with this help, mended my waggon, and had my revenge on the herd of elephants, killing three of them before I left.”
“Well,” said Kemp, “when I go into a country where there is not much water, I always take my baboon.”
“You don’t drink him, do you?”
“No, but I make him show me water.”
“How do you do that?”