THE ROAN. 399 



sometimes valuable extra, but by no means to 

 be depended upon. 



Now, however, as I was following Kongoni, 

 this faculty had full play, and it assured me 

 vehemently that we were wrong. I called C. 

 up from the rear for consultation. Kongoni was 

 very positive he was right ; but as we had now 

 been walking over an hour, and camp should 

 not have been more than three miles from where 

 we had killed the roan, we were inclined towards 

 my instinct. So we took the compass direction, 

 in order to assure consistency at least, and 

 struck off at full right angles to the left. 



So we tramped for a long time. Every few 

 moments Kongoni would want another look at 

 that compass. It happened that we were now 

 going due north, and his notion was that the 

 needle pointed the way to camp. We profoundly 

 hoped that his faith in white man's magic would 

 not be shattered. At the end of an hour the 

 rain let up, and it cleared sufficiently to dis- 

 close some of the mountain outlines. They con- 

 vinced us that we were in the main right ; though 

 just where, to the north, camp now lay was be- 

 yond our power to determine. Kongoni's detour 

 had been rather indeterminate in direction and 

 distance. 



