Presently everything had gone.  I ceased to feel strange.  There beneath me was the pool, and at my side stood Indaba-zimbi, smiling.

“You have seen things,” he said.

“I have,” I answered, and made no further remark on the matter.  What was there to say?[*] “Do you know the path to the cave?” I added.

     [*] For some almost equally remarkable instances of Kaffir
     magic the reader is referred to a work named “Among the
     Zulus,” by David Leslie.—­Editor.

He nodded his head.  “I did not follow it all just now, because it winds,” he said.  “But I know it.  We shall want the ropes.”

“Then let us be starting; the men have eaten.”

He nodded his head again, and going to the men I told them to make ready, adding that Indaba-zimbi knew the way.  They said that was all right, if Indaba-zimbi had “smelt her out,” they should soon find the Star.  So we started cheerfully enough, and my spirits were so much improved that I was able to eat a boiled mealie cob or two as we walked.

We went up the valley, following the course of the stream for about a mile; then Indaba-zimbi made a sudden turn to the right, along another kloof, of which there were countless numbers in the base of the great hill.

On we went through kloof after kloof.  Indaba-zimbi, who led us, was never at a loss, he turned up gulleys and struck across necks of hills with the certainty of a hound on a hot scent.  At length, after about three hours’ march, we came to a big silent valley on the northern slope of the great peak.  On one side of this valley was a series of stony koppies, on the other rose a sheer wall of rock.  We marched along the wall for a distance of some two miles.  Then suddenly Indaba-zimbi halted.

“There is the place,” he said, pointing to an opening in the cliff.  This opening was about forty feet from the ground, and ellipse-shaped.  It cannot have been more than twenty feet high by ten wide, and was partially hidden by ferns and bushes that grew about it in the surface of the cliff.  Keen as my eyes were, I doubt if I should ever have noticed it, for there were many such cracks and crannies in the rocky face of the great mountain.

We drew near and looked carefully at the place.  The first thing I noticed was that the rock, which was not quite perpendicular, had been worn by the continual passage of baboons; the second, that something white was hanging on a bush near the top of the ascent.

It was a pocket-handkerchief.

Now there was no more doubt about the matter.  With a beating heart I began the ascent.  For the first twenty feet it was comparatively easy, for the rock shelved; the next ten feet was very difficult, but still possible to an active man, and I achieved it, followed by Indaba-zimbi.  But the last twelve or fifteen feet could only be scaled by throwing a rope over the trunk of a stunted tree, which grew at