laces. I thought of those long days on the veld when the earth
was like a great yellow bowl, with white roads running to the horizon
and a tiny white farm basking in the heart of it, with its blue dam and
patches of bright green lucerne. I thought of those baking days on the
east coast, when the sea was like mother-of-pearl and the sky one
burning turquoise. But most of all I thought of warm scented noons on
trek, when one dozed in the shadow of the wagon and sniffed the
wood-smoke from the fire where the boys were cooking dinner.

From these pleasant pictures I returned to the beastly present--the
thick snowy woods, the lowering sky, wet clothes, a hunted present, and
a dismal future. I felt miserably depressed, and I couldn't think of
any mercies to count. It struck me that I might be falling sick.

About midday I awoke with a start to the belief that I was being
pursued. I cannot explain how or why the feeling came, except that it
is a kind of instinct that men get who have lived much in wild
countries. My senses, which had been numbed, suddenly grew keen, and
my brain began to work double quick.

I asked myself what I would do if I were Stumm, with hatred in my
heart, a broken jaw to avenge, and pretty well limitless powers. He
must have found the car in the sandpit and seen my tracks in the wood
opposite. I didn't know how good he and his men might be at following
a spoor, but I knew that any ordinary Kaffir could have nosed it out
easily. But he didn't need to do that. This was a civilized country
full of roads and railways. I must some time and somewhere come out of
the woods. He could have all the roads watched, and the telephone
would set everyone on my track within a radius of fifty miles.
Besides, he would soon pick up my trail in the village I had visited
that morning. From the map I learned that it was called Greif, and it
was likely to live up to that name with me.

Presently I came to a rocky knoll which rose out of the forest. Keeping
well in shelter I climbed to the top and cautiously looked around me.
Away to the east I saw the vale of a river with broad fields and
church-spires. West and south the forest rolled unbroken in a
wilderness of snowy tree-tops. There was no sign of life anywhere, not
even a bird, but I knew very well that behind me in the woods were men
moving swiftly on my track, and that it was pretty well impossible for
me to get away.

There was nothing for it but to