ta what had
always been in the Portugoose's heart. Henriques, I fancy, was making
for the cave in the Rooirand. Laputa, so far as I can guess at his
mind, had a plan for getting over the Portuguese border, fetching a
wide circuit, and joining his men at any of the concentrations between
there and Amsterdam.

The two were seen at midday going down the road which leads from
Blaauwildebeestefontein to the Lebombo. Then they struck Arcoll's new
front, which stretched from the Letaba to the Labongo. This drove them
north again, and forced them to swim the latter stream. From there to
the eastern extremity of the Rooirand, which is the Portuguese
frontier, the country is open and rolling, with a thin light scrub in
the hollows. It was bad cover for the fugitives, as they found to
their cost. For Arcoll had purposely turned his police into a flying
column. They no longer held a line; they scoured a country. Only
Laputa's incomparable veld-craft and great bodily strength prevented
the two from being caught in half an hour. They doubled back, swam the
Labongo again, and got into the thick bush on the north side of the
Blaauwildebeestefontein road. The Basuto scouts were magnificent in
the open, but in the cover they were again at fault. Laputa and
Henriques fairly baffled them, so that the pursuit turned to the west
in the belief that the fugitives had made for Majinje's kraal. In
reality they had recrossed the Labongo and were making for Umvelos'.

All this I heard afterwards, but in the meantime I lay in Arcoll's tent
in deep unconsciousness. While my enemies were being chased like
partridges, I was reaping the fruits of four days' toil and terror.
The hunters had become the hunted, the wheel had come full circle, and
the woes of David Crawfurd were being abundantly avenged.

I slept till midday of the next day. When I awoke the hot noontide sun
had made the tent like an oven. I felt better, but very stiff and
sore, and I had a most ungovernable thirst. There was a pail of water
with a tin pannikin beside the tent pole, and out of this I drank
repeated draughts. Then I lay down again, for I was still very weary.

But my second sleep was not like my first. It was haunted by wild
nightmares. No sooner had I closed my eyes than I began to live and
move in a fantastic world. The whole bush of the plains lay before me,
and I watched it as if from some view-point in the clouds. It was
midday, and the sandy