XIX ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 327 



to water at last before midday on the 26th. 

 Whether they really smelt it, or were made aware 

 by a certain freshness in the air that water lay in 

 the direction from which the wind was blowing, or 

 whether they only hit off the water by chance, I 

 cannot say, but they reached a vley or pool in 

 which there was a good supply of recent rain-water. 

 The herd-boys who followed them had, it appeared, 

 had a very hard time of it, and on coming to a 

 small vley in which there was only mud but no 

 water, a short time before reaching the larger pool, 

 two of them had declared that they could go 

 no farther, and had thrown themselves down and 

 rolled in the mud, and would doubtless have died 

 there, had not their comrades, who shortly after- 

 wards reached the larger pool with the cattle, 

 carried them back some water in a calabash and 

 revived them. The cattle were driven back to the 

 waggons on the night of the 26th, and arrived there 

 before Tinkarn's cattle returned from the Luali 

 river. Collison at once gave the order to inspan, 

 and pushing on through the heat of the day, 

 reached Klabala on the night of the 27th, Tinkarn 

 and his people turning up a few hours later. At 

 Klabala the cattle were given a rest till the after- 

 noon of the 29th, and soon after again making a 

 start for Shoshong, met me coming back with my 

 unnecessary relief spans — as it turned out. 



Well, all's well that ends well ; though I hope 

 I may never experience such an uncomfortable 

 Christmas again as the one I spent in the desert 

 in the year 1879. 



