Prester John

with the track a golden ivory band before me. I had looked at my watch before I started, and seen that it was just after eight o'clock. I had a great horse under m

ld be roughly treated, tied up prisoner, and carried with the army when the march began. But till Inanda's Kraal my life was safe, and bef

. The men in the cave might butcher me out of hand, or Laputa might think my behaviour a sufficient warrant for the breach of the solemnest vow. Colin might never get to Blaauwildebeestefontein, Laputa might change his route of march, or A

rubies, Henriques had said. Nay, there must be more, I argued. This cave of the Rooirand was the headquarters of the rising, and there must be stored their funds-diamonds, and the gold they had been bartered for. I believe that every man has deep in his soul a passion for treasure-hunting, which will often drive a coward into prodigies of valour. I lusted for that treasure of jewels and gold. Once I had been high-minded, and thought of my duty to my country, but in that night

was willed would happen, and that man was but a puppet in the hands of his Maker. I looked on the last months as a clear course which had been mapped out for me. Not for nothing had I been given a clue to the strange events which were coming. It was foreordained

was quiet as the grave. The man who rode my pony would find him a slow traveller, and I pitied the poor beast bucketed along by an angry rider. Gradually a hazy wall of purple beg

ape-carts and light wagons. It was like a colossal gathering for naachtmaal[1] at a Dutch dorp, but every man was black. I saw through a corner of my eye that they were armed with guns, though many carried in addition their spears and shields. Their first impul

eir king's own charger I rode, and who dared question such a warrant? I heard the word pass through the bush, and all down the road I g

. Their rifle-barrels glinted in the moon-light, and the sight sent a cold shiver down my back. Above them, among the scrub and along the l

in silence and took the bridle. This left the track to the cave open, and with as stif

ess, with a dirty face, dishevelled hair, and a torn flannel shirt. My mind was no better than my body, for now that I had arrived I found my courage gone. Had it been possible I would have turned tail and fled, but the boats were burned behind me, and I had no

had to feel my way by the sides. I moved very slowly, wondering how soon I should find the end my folly

on my breast, and a voi

,' I said

into the darkness. My hopes revived for a second. The passw

e gorge. My guide did something with the right-hand wall, and I felt myself being drawn into a kind of passage. It was so narrow that two co

on its left side (or 'true right', as mountaineers would call it) until we could go no farther. Then we did a terrible thing. Across the gorge, which here was at its narrowest, stretched a slab of stone. Far, far below I caught the moonlight on a mass of hurrying waters. This was our bridge, and though I have a good head for crags, I confess I

e roof, though the place was brightly lit with torches stuck round the wall, and a great fire which burned at the farther end. But the wonder was on the left side, where the floor ceased in a chasm. The left wall was one sheet of water, where the river fell f

fore it. The glow revealed the old man I had seen on that morning a month before moving towards the cave. He stood as if in a trance, straight as a tree, with his arms crossed on his breast. A robe of some shining whi

' he asked

spoke up boldly. 'He follows so

t of the store. Happily I was so dusty that he could scarcely recognize me, but I kept my face turned away from him. What with the lig

Communio

ied only to the