The poor creature was soon made to understand what she was required to do, while Martin assured her that she should receive no harm, and should be well rewarded. Still this poor wanderer of the desert, accustomed all her life to ill-treatment, seemed to doubt the motives of her captors, and turned her head about, as if meditating an escape. Knowing, however, that she could not outstrip the horses, she walked quietly on, every now and then looking up and imploring the strangers not to hurt her. Her husband, her sole companion, she said, was in the neighbourhood, and would be wondering what had become of her.
“Show us the water, and you shall return to him when you wish,” said the elder Vincent.
She replied that it would take nearly an hour to reach it.
“Look out then for the waggon, Martin, or it may pass us; for on this hard ground even Masiko may fail to see our tracks.”
Martin did as he was told, and, greatly to his relief, at length met the caravan.
It moved forward for some time. Martin could nowhere see his father. Masiko made him feel anxious, by hinting that the old woman might, under the pretence of looking for water, have enticed him among a band of her own people, notorious, he said, for their treachery. Martin on this would have ridden forward, had he not received directions to bring on the caravan.
The sun was nearly touching the western horizon, when, to his great relief, he at length caught sight of his father’s horse in the distance. At the same instant the cattle began to move on faster than they had hitherto done.
“Water! water!” shouted the thirsty people, and the whole party rushed forward ahead of the waggon. Martin, who led the way, could see no pool. The old woman, however, was on her knees, scraping the sand from a hole, out of which she began to ladle with a little cup a small quantity of water into three or four ostrich eggs, carried in a net at her back.
“I am afraid our poor oxen will not be much the better for this discovery,” observed Martin when he reached his father.
“Wait a bit, our men will soon dig more wells, though it may be some hours before we shall have water sufficient for the animals,” was the answer.