harking back to Robbie's quotation, said, with a ghost 

 of a smile : " I reckon ef that sharp o' your'n hed 

 ter keep the camp in meat we'd go pretty nigh hungry." 



But it seemed a good deal to give up all at once 

 the bad luck, the excuses and explanations, and the 

 comfort they afforded ; and I could not help thinking 

 of that wretched wrong-headed stembuck that had 

 actually allowed me to pass it, and then cantered 

 away behind me. 



Rocky, known, liked and respected by all, yet in- 

 timate with none, was l going North ' even to the 

 Zambesi, it was whispered but no one knew where 

 or why. He was going off alone, with two pack- 

 donkeys and not even a boy for company, on a trip 

 of many hundreds of miles and indefinite duration. 

 No doubt he had an idea to work out ; perhaps a report 

 of some trader or hunter or even native was his pole- 

 star : most certainly he had a plan, but what it was 

 no living soul would know. That was the way of his 

 kind. With them there was no limit in time or 

 distance, no hint of purpose or direction, no home, 

 no address, no * people ' ; perhaps a partner some- 

 where or a chum, as silent as themselves, who would 

 hear some day if there was anything to tell. 



Rocky had worked near our camp on the Berg. I 

 had known him to nod to, and when we met again 

 at one of the early outspans in the Bush and offered 

 a lift for him and his packs he accepted and joined us, | V ^ 

 it being still a bit early to attempt crossing the rivers g% 

 with pack-donkeys. It may be that the ' lift ' saved 

 his donkeys something on the roughest roads and in 

 27 



