There was mirth lurking in his face as he explained that he had come over at Tom's instance. Tom should have come to see if anything more was wanted before he turned in for the night, but he was afraid. His master seemed bewitched, he declared. He and the other two white men were all drunk, but his master was the most drunk of all--yes, by far. His master drunk! At any other time we would have roared over the absurdity of the situation, and Tom's very justifiable amazement. Now Jan Boom was directed to tell him to turn in, and then come back. He came back, but took rather long about it. "Now _Amakosi_!" he said. "We will start, but no word must be spoken save in the faintest of whispers, and only then if it cannot be avoided." "What if Tom should take into his head to come here again?" I asked. "He will not, _Nkose_, I have tied him up so that he can neither move nor speak." "Good," I said. The night seemed very dark as we set forth, for the moon had not yet risen, and the starlight was insufficient to render our march easy, as we followed the elastic stride of our silent guide. Our excitement was intense, as we threaded the thickness of some bushy kloof by narrow game paths known to our guide and lit upon in the darkness with the unerring instinct of the savage. Every now and then a rustle and patter, as something scurried away, and once some large animal, alarmed, started away with a sudden and tremendous crash which it seemed must have been heard for miles. Not one of us dared break the Xosa's enjoinment to strict silence, and thus we proceeded. How long this lasted we could only guess, but it seemed that we were hours traversing the interminable tortuousness of bushy ravines, or scaling the side of a slope with such care as not to disturb a single stone. At last Jan Boom came to a halt, and stood, listening intently. In the gloom we could make out nothing distinct. We were facing a dark mass of thick bush, with a rugged boulder here and there breaking through, as if it had fallen from a stunted krantz which crowned the slope not very much higher above. It took some straining of the eyes to grasp these details. When we looked again our guide had disappeared. "What does it mean, Glanton?" whispered Falkner. "What if this is another trap and we are going to be the next to disappear? Well, we sha'n't do it so quietly, that's one thing." Then through the silence came Jan Boom's voice, and--it seemed to come from right beneath our feet. "Down here, _Amakosi_. Iqalaqala first."