104 
THOMAS J. COMBER. 
pressed on at our utmost speed, fearing still that the 
people were not far behind. By dark we reached the 
town where we had left our Moila man. With his 
aid we continued our journey in the darkness, often 
tripping and stumbling, but still continuing our 
course, for life depended on our putting a long 
distance between ourselves and Banza Makuta, and 
outrunning the news in this still unfriendly country. 
At nine o’clock we reached Kola, the town where 
we had slept the previous night. Here we rested until 
past twelve, and then — fearing pursuit, and, perhaps, 
too, treachery from the people — we started again. 
The night was pitchy black — no moon or stars. We 
could only feel our road, and often had to keep hold 
of each other’s walking-poles to keep together. So 
we walked on untik three o’clock, passing through 
several towns on tiptoe for fear of waking the people ; 
but at last we came to a large town, where our guide 
lost the way. There was a river before us which 
could only be crossed by a bridge, and that bridge we 
could not find in the darkness, so, after an hour’s 
fruitless search, we lay ourselves down in the road to 
wait for the day — two weary hours, during which the 
others slept, and I, after in vain trying to find another 
way over the river, sat and watched. When the long- 
wished-for dawn broke we went back into the town, 
and found the road. We were all desperately tired, 
and Mr. Comber was getting faint with his wound; 
but we pressed on until we had crossed the Quiloa, 
passed Banza Mputa, and reached a friendly town 
two hours beyond. Here Mr. Comber was quite 
‘done up,’ and the small flask of brandy — the only 
thing we managed to save — failed. We sat in this 
town about an hour, and ate a little rice. Mr. 
Comber revived a little, and we started again. For- 
tunately, we were able to get a few men, and I made 
up a hammock of a blanket, so that we got on as far 
as Sanda by the middle of the afternoon, Mr. Comber 
in the hammock, Cam and I walking. At Sanda we 
