At nightfall they again started, their course leading steeply up the gorge in which they had rested.  Although the pathway became more and more indistinct, Ghamba appeared never to be at a loss.  Langley several times shuddered, when they passed by the very edge of some immense precipice, or clambered along some steep mountain-side, where a false step would have meant destruction.  He began to show signs of fatigue soon after midnight, so at Ghamba’s suggestion a considerable portion of his load was transferred to the shoulders of Whitson, who seemed to be as tireless as Ghamba himself.

At daybreak they halted in the depths of another tremendous gorge with precipitous sides.  The scenery in this particular area of the Drakensberg range, the neighbourhood of the Mont aux Sources, is indescribably grand and impressive, and is quite unlike anything else in South Africa.  Enormous and fantastically shaped mountains are here huddled together indiscriminately, and between them wind and double deep gloomy gorges, along the bottoms of which mighty boulders are thickly strewn.  On dizzy ledge and steep slope dense thickets of wild bamboo grow, and a few stunted trees fill some of the less deep clefts, wherever the sunshine can penetrate.  Splendid as is the scenery, its gloom, its stillness, its naked crags and peaks, its dark depths that seem to cleave to the very vitals of the earth, become so oppressive that, after a few days spent among them, the traveller is filled with repulsion and almost horror.  Few living things have their home there.  You might meet an occasional “klipspringer” (an antelope, in habits and appearance somewhat like the chamois), a wandering troop of baboons, and now and then a herd of eland in the more grassy areas.  There are said to be a few Bushmen still haunting the caves, but they are seldom or never seen.

In the afternoon the sun shone into the gorge in which the travellers were resting, and for a few hours the heat was very oppressive.  Whitson examined his revolver, removing the cartridges and replacing them by others.  He then lay down to sleep, asking Langley to remain awake and keep a lookout.  He had a vague feeling of uneasiness which he could not overcome.  Langley promised to keep awake, but he was too tired to do so.  He sat with his back against a rock, and, after some futile efforts to keep his eyes open, fell fast asleep.  By-and-by Ghamba woke him gently, and, pointing to Whitson, whose revolver lay in the leather case close to his hand, whispered: 

“Did he not tell you to keep awake?”

Langley was grateful for this evidence of consideration, but he could not quite make out how Ghamba had been able to understand what Whitson had said.  However, when the latter awoke, Langley said nothing to him about having disobeyed instructions.