The following morning Edward Harden set out upon his journey, and it was a strange crowd that followed him into the forest. The majority of them were women; but the African woman is accustomed to manual labour. At Zanzibar, sea-going ships are coaled by great buxom wenches, who can lift a hundredweight as though it were a trifle. With many inland tribes, between Mombasa and the West Coast, the work in the fields is conducted almost exclusively by women. The men pride themselves upon being warriors, hunters of big game and setters of traps. They consider it beneath their dignity to dig and delve and hoe the ground, since such employment entails no personal danger. Edward, therefore, was well contented to have women as his servants; and before he started he bargained to pay them in beads, cloth and cowrie shells.
Whilst he was absent, Crouch and Max became drill-sergeants for the nonce. The Fans were first taught the mechanism of the rifle, and how to clean it. They were then instructed in aiming drill. Though Crouch had now a fair working knowledge of their language, for the most part he taught them by demonstration; and they proved most promising recruits. At last a target was set up in the valley; and rifle practice took place daily both in the morning and the evening.
By the time Edward returned, though the Fans were not yet marksmen, it seemed probable that they would be ready to take the field in another day or so. Still, both Crouch and Edward desired to run no risks. They did not intend to operate against Makanda, until they could do so with every chance of success. It was Edward's suggestion that they should reconnoitre the settlement before they advanced. They desired to discover the quickest route to the granite hills, and some position thereon--within striking distance of Makanda--where they could establish their headquarters. It was also necessary to find out the strength of Cæsar's garrison. At the time of their visit, they had not been able to ascertain how many Arabs were secreted in the kraal. De Costa, they knew, need not be taken into account; the man was an arrant coward. But the Arab is a foe who can never be despised; he is a good rifle-shot, an intelligent soldier, and his religion teaches him to be brave.
The next question was to decide who should be sent forward as a scout; and it was Max who was selected for the task. Edward had just returned from the jungle; and besides, the big man was by no means so quick and agile as his nephew. Crouch was out of the question; he had burnt so much of his cork foot that he could only hobble and would take too long over the journey. It was finally decided that Max should start a day in advance of the others, taking with him provisions for three days, as well as his rifle and revolver.
That evening, Edward and Max climbed to the top of Solitude Peak. During the day the crest of the mountain was invariably wrapped in clouds, but towards evening these usually disappeared. On this occasion, a most magnificent panorama of the surrounding country was presented to their view. They looked down upon the whole valley of the Hidden River, from Makanda to the mangrove swamp; and it was then that Edward filled in the final details of his map.
They saw that it was possible to reach Cæsar's stockade without entering the jungle. If one followed the valley above which lay the Pambala village, one would come, in course of time, to the granite hills to the east of Makanda. They calculated that, if Max started at daybreak, he would reach his destination towards the evening.
Accordingly, soon after sunrise, Max set out, bearing with him the good wishes of his friends. A native footpath led some distance down the valley, but there turned into the jungle. Max struck across country, holding his course south-west by the compass.
He halted at midday to enjoy a meal of biscuits and sardines, washed down by the clear water from a neighbouring brook. As he sat in solitude, in the midst of that illimitable wilderness, he could not but reflect upon the strangeness of his situation. Here was he, who all his life had been accustomed to the roll of London 'buses and the cries of newsboys in the streets, seated on a boulder, in the blazing heat of the tropics, thousands of miles beyond the pale of civilization.
It was whilst he was there that he beheld, for the first time in his life--if we make exception of the animals he had seen in the Zoo--a great rock-python which lay, coiled in the grass, not twenty paces from him. The sight of the thing caused him to shudder. He sprang instantly to his feet. As he did so the snake heard him, and glided away among the rocks. In the thickest part of its body the great reptile was about the size of a man's thigh; and it must have been over twenty feet in length.
Max, having no desire for such a companion, moved on in haste, keeping the mountain to his left. For the most part, he passed through a kind of neutral territory, where the dominion of the jungle gave way to the barren, rock-bound slopes of Solitude Peak. The afternoon was well advanced by the time he arrived at the granite hills.