'He knew well he could not deceive the blacks that way,' said Walters. 'No! this is the track of a man running, and running fast. Doubtless it was one of the head-station blacks, from the public-house, who had heard or suspected something, and was coming to give the others warning, but was too late. Whoever he is, he is hidden somewhere in the water still, and Peel too, most likely.'
'In the water?' I said, astonished.
'Yes; amongst the reeds.'
'But,' said I, 'there are no reeds, or scarcely any; only those narrow strips, barely a yard or two in width, round the margin; and you can see right down into them from the banks, and detect any man's head above the surface, even if it were in the thickest patch I see hereabouts; for they are not more than ten or twelve inches above the water, at most.'
'Yes; if they were such fools as to keep their heads above water,' replied the lieutenant. 'But these chaps are stowed away underneath.'
'With their heads under water? What do you mean?'
'I mean that you might pass this lagoon, walk round its banks, and look as closely as you will down upon those scanty reeds fringing the margin,—you will see nothing, and hear nothing but the rustling of the wind in the leaves. And yet a hundred blacks might be lying hidden there all the time! And so closely will they be concealed that a flock of wild ducks might alight and see nothing to startle them, so solitary and quiet will be the aspect of the place.'
'How can they manage it?'
'Simply enough. Almost every one of them keeps about him, concealed in his thick, bushy hair, a piece of hollow reed tube. When closely pressed, they take to the water, and, diving beneath, thrust their heads into a patch of reeds. Turning on their backs first, they allow their faces to come near enough to the surface for the tube to project, and they breathe through it. The sharpest eye could not detect this, hidden as it is amongst the thick growth; and even without it, it would be impossible to detect their nostrils, which, in that case, they only allow to project above water. See!' he added; 'they are groping for them.'
Some spears had been brought from the deserted camp for this very purpose; and, walking round the margin, two of the troopers thrust these in all directions into the water, but for some time without any result; the other black continuing his search round the banks for the trail, in case they had after all left it. All at once, however, I noticed one of them, as he was bending forward, and probing with his weapon, slip and partly fall in. His spear had been jerked out of his hand, and a movement in the reeds betrayed the cause. Running up, I caught sight, for an instant, of the twinkling soles of the feet (which are much lighter-coloured than the skin of the rest of the body) of the diver, as he proceeded to swim under water to some other part of the lagoon. But his pursuers had also seen them, and had been able to follow, with their keener gaze, the passage of the dark body itself, which, after the first glimpse, was invisible to me, to its new hiding-place. There was not the slightest disturbance of the surface, or any greater movement amongst the wind-tossed reeds than was observable elsewhere on the water-hole, to betray its whereabouts, yet the blacks unerringly selected the spot, and with poised spears were about to thrust the unfortunate through, whoever he was, when Stevenson interposed.