“Mr. Grey, today we can walk and may yet not die but drink water; tomorrow you and I will be two dead men, if we walk not now, for we shall then be weak and unable.  The others sit down too much; they are weak and cannot walk:  if we remain with them we shall all die; but we two are still strong; let us walk.  There lies the sea; to that the streams run; it is long since we have crossed a river:  go quickly, and before the next sun gets up we shall cross another running water.”  He paused for a minute, looking steadfastly at me, and then added, “You must leave the others, for I know not where they are, and we shall die in trying to find them.”

His designs frustrated.

I now knew that he was playing me false and that he had purposely led me astray.  He was too great a coward to move on alone for fear of other natives and, dreading to lose his life by thirst, he had hit upon this expedient of inducing me to abandon the others and to proceed with him.  “Do you see the sun, Kaiber, and where it now stands?” I replied to him.  “Yes,” was his answer.  “Then if you have not led me to the party before that sun falls behind the hills I will shoot you; as it begins to sink you die.”  I said these words, looking at him steadily in the face, and with the full intention of putting my threat into execution.  He saw this, and yet strove to appear unconcerned, and with a forced laugh said, “You play.  From daylight until now you and I have walked; we have wasted our strength now in looking for water for the others.  But a short time, and we shall be dead; and you say, search for men whom I cannot find; you tell me, look; and I know not where to look.”  I now lost all patience with him and replied:  “Kaiber, deceive as you will, you cannot deceive me; follow back our tracks instantly to the point from whence we started:  if you do not find them, as the sun falls you die.”  “I am wearied,” answered he; “for three days I have not either eaten or drunk, far have we wandered since we left them, and very distant from us are they now sitting.”  I could bear this no longer, and, starting up, said, “You deceive:  the sun falls! just now I spoke:  Koolyum, nganga dabbut—­garrum wangaga.”  Again he forced a laugh and said, “Surely, you play.”  I answered shortly, “Did I ever tell you a lie, Kaiber?  I now speak the truth.”

Return to the party without water.

He seemed, when he saw that I was so determined, to feel a little uncomfortable, and shifting his position moved rather further from me; this motion on his part induced me to conceive that he intended to run away; in which case I could never again have hoped to rejoin the party; I therefore instantly cocked the remaining barrel of my gun and presented it at him, telling him that if he ever moved from me further than a certain tree which I pointed out I would forthwith shoot him, instead of waiting until sunset as I had originally