A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER, igg 



descending to crush us into a horrible and hidden 

 tomb. The thought of lying here, squeezed down 

 till Judgment Day, was appalling ; or, perhaps, 

 more mercifully, one's bones might, ages hereafter, 

 be discovered, as these regions became settled up, 

 in much the same state in which mummified cats are 

 occasionally found in old chimneys and hidden 

 closets, when ancient dwellings are pulled down in 

 England. Even Klaas, plucky Bushman though he 

 was, didn't seem to relish the adventure, and spoke 

 in a subdued and awe-stricken whisper. Sometimes 

 since, as I have thought of that most gruesome 

 passage, I have burst into a sweat, nearly as profuse, 

 though not so painful, as I endured that day. At 

 last, after what seemed to me hours upon hours of 

 this painful crawling and Egyptian gloom, we met 

 a breath of fresher air ; the tunnel widened and 

 heightened, and in another five minutes we emerged 

 into the blessed sunlight. Little Klaas looked pretty 

 well 'baked,' even in his old leather 'crackers'* 

 and flannel shirt ; as for myself, I was literally 

 streaming ; every thread on me was as wet as if I 

 had plunged into a river. We lay panting for awhile 

 upon the scorching rocks, and then sat up and 

 looked about us. 



" If the Paarl Kloof, as Klaas called it, from 

 whence we had just come, had been sufficiently 

 striking, the mighty amphitheatre in which we lay 

 was infinitely more amazing. Imagine a vast arena 

 almost completely circular in shape, flat and smooth, 

 and composed as to its flooring of intermingled sand 

 and gravel, reddish-yellow in colour. This arena 



* A Colonial term for leather trousers. 



