The country, however, did not change its feature; bushes and little acacias prevailed, and presently dark forms began to glide across at intervals.

The travellers held their breath, and pushed on; but at last their horses flagged; so they thought it best to stop and light a fire and stand upon their guard.

They did so, and Falcon sat with his rifle cocked, while Staines boiled coffee, and they drank it, and after two hours’ halt, pushed on; and at last the bushes got more scattered, and they were on the dreary plain again.  Falcon drew the rein, with a sigh of relief, and they walked their horses side by side.

“Well, what has become of the lions?” said Falcon jauntily.  He turned in his saddle, and saw a large animal stealing behind them with its belly to the very earth, and eyes hot coals; he uttered an eldrich screech, fired both barrels, with no more aim than a baby, and spurred away, yelling like a demon.  The animal fled another way, in equal trepidation at those tongues of flame and loud reports, and Christopher’s horse reared and plunged, and deposited him promptly on the sward; but he held the bridle, mounted again, and rode after his companion.  A stern chase is a long chase; and for that or some other reason he could never catch him again till sunrise.  Being caught, he ignored the lioness, with cool hauteur:  he said he had ridden on to find comfortable quarters:  and craved thanks.

This was literally the only incident worth recording that the companions met with in three hundred miles.

On the sixth day out, towards afternoon, they found by inquiring they were near the diamond washings, and the short route was pointed out by an exceptionally civil Boer.

But Christopher’s eye had lighted upon a sort of chain of knolls, or little round hills, devoid of vegetation, and he told Falcon he would like to inspect these, before going farther.

“Oh,” said the Boer, “they are not on my farm, thank goodness! they are on my cousin Bulteel’s;” and he pointed to a large white house about four miles distant, and quite off the road.  Nevertheless, Staines insisted on going to it.  But first they made up to one of these knolls, and examined it; it was about thirty feet high, and not a vestige of herbage on it; the surface was composed of sand and of lumps of gray limestone very hard, diversified with lots of quartz, mica, and other old formations.

Staines got to the top of it with some difficulty, and examined the surface all over.  He came down again, and said, “All these little hills mark hot volcanic action—­why, they are like boiling earth-bubbles—­which is the very thing, under certain conditions, to turn carbonate of lime into diamonds.  Now here is plenty of limestone unnaturally hard; and being in a diamond country, I can fancy no place more likely to be the matrix than these earth-bubbles.  Let us tether the horses, and use our shovels.”

They did so; and found one or two common crystals, and some jasper, and a piece of chalcedony all in little bubbles, but no diamond.  Falcon said it was wasting time.