"In case we find them," echoed Harry, "we'll go straight to his kraal and compel him to give up the captives. Isn't that so, Frank?"
"Yes," I replied, "in a general way that's so."
"What do you mean by 'a general way'?"
"Well, I mean this: bear in mind we are three white men, well armed, and capable of doing a good deal of fighting; but three of us, with all our weapons, might be over-matched on reaching his kraal, as we would be liable to be beset by two or three hundred natives, armed with spears, knob-kerries, and other native weapons. The odds in numbers would be terribly against us; and though we made every bullet tell, they would still have a large majority on their side after our ammunition was exhausted. It may be a case where diplomacy will be much more to our advantage than to pitch in and fight at once."
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE RESCUING-PARTY—A STARTLING DISCOVERY—CAUGHT IN A
CLOUD-BURST.
Jack and Harry agreed with me, and then the former remarked that we had better be on our way.
We carried a supply of food and water, and, as on the previous occasion, I had the forethought to take my brandy-flask. We took our bearing by compass toward the southwest, and for some distance were able to follow the spoor of the horses. The ground was dry and hard, and in many places the spoor was so indistinct that we frequently lost it; but by keeping the same direction we were generally able to pick it up again, and we did so without losing much time on the way.
Seven or eight miles from camp we came upon traces of a shower of rain the previous day; and as there were no signs of any spoor of horses upon it, we concluded that the shower must have fallen after our friends passed along. The country was open and undulating; there were clumps of bushes here and there, occasional patches of trees, and occasionally a solitary old tree standing alone, like a sentinel. Over a considerable part of the country there were numerous ant-hills: not the ordinary ant-hill of England or the United States, but a conical mound six or eight feet in height, erected by the labor of its tiny inhabitants, and so firmly built as to resist the effects of the weather.
We saw a few koodoo, elands, and other animals of the antelope order, but we had no time to go in pursuit of them. We held on in the general direction in which we had started, keeping a sharp eye out everywhere for anything which might guide us toward the objects of our search. The undulations of the plain increased; and after a time, as we crossed a ridge, we saw before us a valley of great width, and stretching out to right and left as far as the eye could reach. The valley was at least a mile wide, and to our surprise we saw what appeared to be a river or lake in the middle of it.