With a rolling gait they crawled unwillingly forward, their tongues
protruding from their mouths, each offering as perfect a picture of
despair as could well be imagined.

The horses on the contrary seemed eager to get over the ground as
quickly as possible. They appeared to act under the guidance of reason,
as if knowing that they were still far from the wished-for water, and
that the faster they travelled the sooner it would be reached.

Throughout the afternoon Hendrik and Willem rode in advance of the
others, anxiously looking out for spring, pool, or stream. The
all-sustaining fluid must be found that night, or their cattle would
perish. Their knowledge of this filled them with forebodings for the
future, and they travelled on almost as despairingly as their oxen.
They had made a great mistake in so imprudently parting with the
Bechuanas, without making inquiries about the country through which they
should have to travel. Had they done so, they might have avoided the
difficulty their indiscretion had now brought upon them.

A little before sunset a hill, higher than any they had seen during the
day, was descried to the right of their course. At its base they saw
growing a grove of stunted trees. Raising their heads and cocking their
ears, the horses ridden by Willem and Hendrik started off towards the
hill at a brisk pace, each uttering a low whimpering, that their riders
interpreted into the word _Water_. Before reaching the grove they
passed a dead lion, part of which had been eaten by some carrion-feeding
denizens of the desert. By the side of the carcass were also seen three
or four dead jackals, which they supposed the lion to have killed before
giving up the ghost himself.

On reaching the grove, they discovered a small pool of muddy water; and
with outstretched necks their horses rushed towards it. By its edge lay
the dead body of a buffalo; and near by a hyena in the same condition.

"Hold your horse!" exclaimed Hendrik, suddenly reining in his own.
"Perhaps the water is poisoned. See that buffalo and hyena,--and we
have just passed the other dead animals."

It required all their strength to hinder the horses from plunging into
the pool. Only by turning their heads in the opposite direction and
driving the spurs into their sides, did they succeed in keeping them
away from the water. Even then the suffering animals seemed determined
to rear backwards into the pool; and it was not without a