THE POACHERS CAUGHT 237 



We inspanned at sunset, and plunged 

 straight into the desert, travelling slightly to 

 the south of east. Our objective was lower 

 Pof Adder — which must not be confounded 

 with the northern Pof Adder beyond Namies. 

 We were out of the region of " toa " ; the plain 

 was covered with small shrub, — half of which 

 were soft and succulent and the others hard 

 and thorny. There were no intermediate 

 kinds ; the desert is a region of extremes. 



In spite of the jolting I managed to get a 

 few hours' sleep. We outspanned for an hour 

 at midnight and made coffee. Now we had 

 some heavy sand-tracts to cross, — with jolty 

 stretches lying between them. But we reached 

 the camp of the half-breeds just at dawn, as 

 had been intended. 



They were caught — if not exactly red- 

 handed, yet with ample proof of their guilt. 

 In the mat-houses of the suspected men we 

 found boxes and bags packed full of feathers. 

 These were of all kinds — from the longr white 

 plumes and the short blacks of the male bird, 

 to the browns of the hens and chicks. The 

 culprits pleaded guilty; retributive justice was 

 forthwith satisfied at the wagon-wheel. 



The camp was quite a large one; I should 

 say it contained over sixty souls, men, women 



