"What makes you think that, Peter?"
"Smell the water."
"Do you, Peter? I did not know that it had any smell."
"Yes, baas. Oxen and deer and sheep all can smell it. Oxen always quicken their pace when they get near a pool."
"That would seem to show that you are right, but still I don't think there can be any smell; but there may be more damp in the air near water, and their senses in that way are more delicate than that of a white man. As you say you think we are near water I have no doubt you are right. Anyhow, I hope you are, for I have knocked the skin off my shins in half a dozen places among these rocks, and I have pretty nearly twisted my ankle as often, so I shall be glad enough to lie down. I certainly had several hours' sleep yesterday, but that did not make up for the loss of sleep the night before; besides, my feet are getting very tender. I have not walked, in all the months I have been out here, as much as during these two nights."
"Baas walks very well. No Dutchman ever walked half as far as you do."
"Perhaps not, Peter; they never use their legs. A Boer would get on a horse if he only wanted to go fifty yards to fetch anything. I used to be a good walker, but on the farm I got to be almost as lazy as the Dutchmen."
A quarter of an hour later a line of bushes rose in front of them.
"That looks as if the river were near."