“We telegraphed to all parts of the southern continent where the telegraph reached, to have the police look out for him.
“The authorities of neighboring countries like the Orange Free State and the Dutch Republic gladly united with us in an effort to run him down.
“If he had gone from Kimberley to any civilized town we certainly should have known it, for we had his picture and description complete. He could not have escaped us.
“After some weeks of vain looking for him in the white settlements we were forced to conclude that Mulvey had either become a solitary wanderer or hermit, or that he had joined a tribe of savages.
“Meantime we had been looking up his past record as far as possible, and from that we came to the conclusion that he had joined the savages rather than become a solitary wanderer.”
“What was his record?” asked Trim.
“As I said, he had been a soldier and a convict but previously to his turning up in Kimberley we learned that he had been living in Central Africa, and that he was on mighty good terms to say the least, with the Narugas.
“The Narugas are a small tribe who live in Gordonia in the western part of Bechuanaland.
“Gordonia is several hundred miles from here and to reach it one has to travel across an unsettled country and cross the lands of several uncivilized tribes.
“Most of the natives there are peaceful enough now, for they have had their fill of resisting John Bull’s soldiers.