bolted up the river meaning to make for the Lebombo, 

 near the Tembe Drift, where Bob McNab and his 

 merry comrades ran free of Governments and were a 

 law unto themselves. It was no place for a nervous 

 man, but Seedling had no choice, and he went on. 

 He had liquor in his saddle bags and food for several 

 days ; but he was not used to the bush, and at the end 

 of the first day he had lost his way and was beyond the 

 river district where the kaffirs lived. 



So much is believed, though not positively known ; 

 at any rate he left the last kraal in those parts about 

 noon, and was next heard of two days later at a kraal 

 under the Lebombo. There he learnt that the Black 

 Umbelusi, which it would be necessary to swim as 

 Snowball and Tsetse had done lay before him, and that 

 it was yet a great distance to Sebougwaans,and even then 

 he would be only half way to Bob's. Seedling could 

 not face it alone, and turned back for the nearest store. 



The natives said that before leaving the kraal he 

 bought beer from them, but did not want food ; for 

 he looked sick ; he was red and swollen in the face ; 

 and his eyes were wild ; the horse was weak and also 

 looked sick, being very thin and empty ; but they 

 showed him the foot-path over the hills which would 

 take him to Tom's a white man's store on the road 

 to Delagoa and he left them ! That was Tom 

 Barnett's at Piscene, where we always stopped ; for 

 Tom was a good friend of ours. 



That was how we came to meet Seedling again. He 

 had made a loop of a hundred and fifty miles in four 

 days in his efforts to avoid us ; but he was waiting for 

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