254 
THE NEW AFRICA 
that it never crossed ray mind to interfere in the matter, 
nor did I know the date of winding. He went on and on 
many miles, and when we afterwards reached the river by 
following his trail, he was gone. Even then it never struck 
me that there was much chance of missing him, so I took 
three of the best boys and followed on his track, while I told 
the others to go on and camp about five miles ahead, where 
they halted at a creek after thirteen and a half miles total 
march. 
We had arranged between us that, if either of us should 
ever wander beyond the knowledge of his exact position with 
regard to the camp, immediately on realising the fact he 
should either return on his back track, and listen for signals 
from camp to be fired every half-hour, or await calmly 
the arrival of those who should come on his track to look 
for him. We also compared our watches daily to mark the 
time when a wanderer might expect to hear the half-hourly 
shots arranged for. 
We went on expecting at every laagte to see Hammar 
calmly smoking his pipe under some tree. At last, after going 
full eight miles, we suddenly found that the stride of his track 
increased to such a length that it cost me quite a running 
effort to cover them with my own steps. The boys looked 
gloomily at me and said that now he had started to run he 
would not stop till he dropped. Men who lost themselves in 
the desert were subject to a kind of panic, and once over¬ 
taken by this feeling they never halted till exhaustion compelled 
them to stop. Unfortunately we had no water with us, so it was 
almost useless following him further just then, probably to find 
him in a state of exhaustion, without something to revive him. 
However, 1 had a better opinion of Hammar’s strength of 
character than to believe he would run himself to death; and 
knew that as soon as he got tired and realised his position 
he would make for our last halting-place, with the unerring 
instinct belonging to him mentioned before, and follow on the 
