During the voyage the cross-bearing men held well aloof from the T wearers, who, for their part, maintained a submissive silence. Reeves would have liked to ask questions, but the silence seemed contagious, and he held his tongue.
"Follow us carefully, riding one behind another," cautioned Garth, as the cavalcade resumed its way. "One step to the right hand or to the left means death."
The three comrades instantly complied, wondering what could be the reason for the extraordinary caution, for the land was flat, and composed, as far as they could see, of hard, sun-baked clay, with no sign of a path or beaten track of any description.
On and on they rode, for more than two miles, in a perfectly straight line. Reeves noticed, however, that the direction was maintained by keeping a solitary tree in line with a peculiarly-shaped crag, both being a long distance from the river.
Suddenly Garth, who was leading, stopped and dismounted. Grasping his short spear, and treading cautiously, he stuck it into the ground. It was like driving a sharp knife through a pie crust. The soil offered a temporary resistance, and then the spear-haft sank, almost as far as the hand that held it, without the faintest effort.
With a gesture of annoyance the Croixilian withdrew the weapon and drove it in at a different spot, this time with more caution. Here the soil was firm, and the spearhead had to be forced home.
Remounting, Garth now directed his course almost at right angles to the former path, the rest of the party following him closely. As the last man passed the spear he withdrew it, dismounting for the purpose of stamping down the hole in the earth. Gerald was the only one of the three Englishmen who witnessed this act, which was performed with stealth, and he resolved to tell Reeves about it at the first opportunity.
But the correspondent kept his eyes well in front of him, striving to detect some leading marks for the new direction. Presently he gave vent to a gentle chuckle. Garth was keeping the left side of an immense baobab tree in line with a small cleft in the cliffs that bordered the treacherous plain on three sides.
"Now, sirs, you are free to ride together," exclaimed the Croixilian, as he wheeled and rode past, towards the men forming the rearguard, in order to recover his spear. Though they were still on the sun-baked plain, Reeves had no hesitation in taking advantage of the permission. The idea of treachery seemed out of the question. Had the Croixilians wished to take advantage of them, they would have done so ere this; but Reeves could not help wondering where the soft crust ended and the firm ground began, since there were no signs that there was such a place.
"We should have been properly sold if we had attempted to cross the plain on our own account," said Hugh.