II LOST 23 



ranges of hills, yet nothing seemed fiimiliar to my 

 eye. Right ahead, in the direction in which I had 

 been riding, appeared a line of densely wooded hills, 

 with one single kopje standing alone just in front 

 of them, and thither I determined to ride. On the 

 way I passed three beautiful gemsbuck, which allowed 

 me to come quite close to them, though they are 

 usually very wild ; but they had nothing to fear 

 from me, as I had no cartridges, and so could do 

 nothing more than admire them. Thus I rode on 

 and on, until the idea occurred to me that I must 

 have ridden across the road (a mere narrow track) 

 without noticing it in the moonlight, as I had 

 constantly been star-gazing after the sun went down, 

 so as to guide my course by the position of the 

 Southern Cross. After a time, I at last felt so sure 

 that this was the case, that I turned my horse's head 

 to the right-about, and rode back again in the direction 

 from which I had just come. About mid-day, finding 

 no road, I began to think that I was in stern reality 

 lost in the veldt, without even a bullet to obtain food 

 for myself, and no water within heaven knew what 

 distance away, except the far-apart drinking-places 

 along the road. And where was that road — was it 

 behind me or in front ? 



Presently, coming in sight of a small stone " kopje," 

 rising like a heap of rocks from the level ground, 

 I rode to it, and tymg my horse to a tree at its 

 foot, climbed up to take a look round. A most 

 bewildering prospect it was — a vast ocean of forest 

 on all sides, as far as the eye could reach, here and 

 there bounded by low ranges of wooded hills, that were 

 not visible from the level ground ; but nowhere 

 could I make out any landmark to guide me in the 

 least. As I looked steadily in the direction from 



