ct: "Very
well; the veldt is free to all, and if you will not permit me to join
your party, I can at least follow you at a distance, and be at hand
whenever you require my services." After which, of course, there was no
more to be said, and Mafuta was allowed to have his own way, to the
great joy of his brethren of the village.

Nor was it very long before the travellers had abundant reason to
congratulate themselves upon their decision in this respect, for Mafuta
not only proved to be a most intelligent and devoted servant, but also a
splendid guide, knowing the exact localities of the various streams and
waterholes on their route, as far as the Zambezi, also the most
favourable crossing places, where the best grass and the most game were
to be found, and, most important of all, perhaps, the exact boundaries
of the fly country. Indeed but for this last knowledge it is almost
certain that in their anxiety to take the shortest possible cuts they
would probably have lost practically all their cattle, and thus have
been obliged to bring their adventure to a premature end.

On their ninth day out from Mafuta's village they struck the Hanyani
River, without meeting with any adventure worthy of record, and
following its right bank for a couple of days, bore away in an easterly
direction, skirting the northern slope of Mount Inyota, where they
struck another small stream flowing to the northward and eastward; and
as this was, broadly speaking, the direction in which they wished to
travel, and as Mafuta assured them that it discharged into the Zambezi,
they decided to follow it, and did so, finding eventually that it united
its flow with another stream, which they followed, still without any
particular adventure save such as daily occurred while hunting; and
three weeks from the day on which Mafuta joined them the travellers
found themselves gazing with delight upon the broad bosom of the
Zambezi, its waters sparkling in the golden light of the westering sun.

Here again Mafuta's knowledge proved to be of the utmost value, for he
was able to guide the party to a spot where the river was fordable, and
where they succeeded in effecting a crossing that same evening before
sunset. Once safely arrived on the left bank of the river, Grosvenor
and Dick decided to camp for a few days, in order to give the oxen a
rest, the grass being good. Also there was a small native village a few
miles higher upstream, where canoes and their c