The path was clear, and we rushed forward along the water-course.  But first we picked up little Tota.  The child was not in a swoon, as I had thought, but paralyzed by terror, so that she could scarcely speak.  Otherwise she was unhurt, though it took her many a week to recover her nerve.  Had she been older, and had she not remembered Hendrika, I doubt if she would have recovered it.  She knew me again, and flung her little arms about my neck, clinging to me so closely that I did not dare to give her to any one else to carry lest I should add to her terrors.  So I went on with her in my arms.  The fears that pierced my heart may well be imagined.  Should I find Stella living or dead?  Should I find her at all?  Well, we should soon know now.  We stumbled on up the stony watercourse; notwithstanding the weight of Tota I led the way, for suspense lent me wings.  Now we were through, and an extraordinary scene lay before us.  We were in a great natural amphitheatre, only it was three times the size of any amphitheatre ever shaped by man, and the walls were formed of precipitous cliffs, ranging from one to two hundred feet in height.  For the rest, the space thus enclosed was level, studded with park-like trees, brilliant with flowers, and having a stream running through the centre of it, that, as I afterwards discovered, welled up from the ground at the head of the open space.

We spread ourselves out in a line, searching everywhere, for Tota was too overcome to be able to tell us where Stella was hidden away.  For nearly half an hour we searched and searched, scanning the walls of rock for any possible openings to a cave.  In vain, we could find none.  I applied to old Indaba-zimbi, but his foresight was at fault here.  All he could say was that this was the place, and that the “Star” was hidden somewhere in a cave, but where the cave was he could not tell.  At last we came to the top of the amphitheatre.  There before us was a wall of rock, of which the lower parts were here and there clothed in grasses, lichens, and creepers.  I walked along it, calling at the top of my voice.

Presently my heart stood still, for I thought I heard a faint answer.  I drew nearer to the place from which the sound seemed to come, and again called.  Yes, there was an answer in my wife’s voice.  It seemed to come from the rock.  I went up to it and searched among the creepers, but still could find no opening.

“Move the stone,” cried Stella’s voice, “the cave is shut with a stone.”

I took a spear and prodded at the cliff whence the sound came.  Suddenly the spear sunk in through a mass of lichen.  I swept the lichen aside, revealing a boulder that had been rolled into the mouth of an opening in the rock, which it fitted so accurately that, covered as it was by the overhanging lichen, it might well have escaped the keenest eye.  We dragged the boulder out; it was two men’s work to do it.  Beyond was a narrow, water-worn passage,