"Down here?" Yes--but where? Then I saw what was a hole or cavity, seeming to pierce the blackness of a dense wall of bush. Without a moment's hesitation I obeyed, and finding Jan Boom's outstretched hand I dropped into what was curiously like a sort of deep furrow. The others followed, and lo--something closed behind us. We were in pitch darkness, and a moist and earthy smell gave out a most uncomfortable suggestion of being buried alive. "Now walk," whispered the Xosa. "Let each keep hold of the one in front of him. But--before all--silence!" In this way we advanced, Jan Boom leading, I keeping a hand on his shoulder, Kendrew doing ditto as to mine, while Falkner brought up the rear. The place was not a cave, for every now and again we could see a star or two glimmering high above. It seemed like a deep fissure or crevasse seaming the ground, but what on earth it was like above I had no idea. We walked lightly and on our toes in order to ensure silent progress. A few minutes of this and the Xosa halted. The fissure had widened out, and now a puff of fresh air bore token that we were getting into the light of day, or rather of night, once more. Nor were we sorry, for our subterranean progress was suggestive of snakes and all kinds of horrors. I, for one, knew by a certain feel in the air that we were approaching water. A little further and again we halted. A patch of stars overhead, and against it the black loom of what was probably a krantz or at any rate a high bluff. The murmur of running water, also sounding from overhead, at the same time smote upon our ears. It was getting lighter. The moon was rising at last, and as we strained our gaze through the thick bushy screen behind which we had halted, this is what we saw. We were looking down upon a circular pool whose surface reflected the twinkling of the stars. On three sides of it ran an amphitheatre of rock, varying from six to twenty feet in height. At the upper end where the water fell into it in a thin stream, the rock dipped to the form of a letter "V." All this we could make out in the dim light of the stars, for as yet the face of the rock was in dark shadow. And yet, and yet-- as I gazed I could descry a striking resemblance to our own waterhole except that this was more shut in. "Remember," whispered the Xosa, impressively. "There is to be no shooting. They are to be taken alive." We promised, wondering the while where "they" were. A tension of excitement, and eagerness for the coming struggle was upon all three of us. For me I rebelled against the agreement which should deter me from battering the life out of the black villains who had brought my darling to this horrible place. What terrors must she not have endured? What ghastly rites of devil worship were enacted here?