"No, thank you," said Dean quietly. "I don't like borrowed plumes." CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. FINDING AN ANTIQUITY. The kopjes with their supposed buildings proved to be farther away than was expected, and a halt was made at night at the first of the outlying piles of tree overgrown stones, while it was the middle of the next day before their goal was reached. A regular halt was made at a very chaos of stones, some being evidently artificially built up after the fashion of walls huge in size, but so overwhelmed, as it were, by a wave of ancient verdure, and dragged down by the wonderfully abundant growth of vines and creepers, that it was difficult to tell which were the stones that had been piled together and which formed part of the nature-erected kopje. "Well, doctor," said Sir James, later on, "what do you think of this?" "Grand," was the reply. "Even if there were nothing more than we can see now, this place would be full of interest." "Do you really think that this is the place of which we have heard?" "It must be," said the doctor; "and it is proved by what we can gather from these two blacks." "Yes," cried Mark excitedly; "and it is there the pigmy obtained his gold." "Yes, boy. Those ornaments were never made by people in such a savage state as he is. Well, the first thing to do is to settle down here and make as strong a camp as we can." "Just here?" said Sir James. "Certainly, for the present. We may no doubt find later on some old temple or other building that we can add to, but for the time being we must contrive a kraal where we can set dangerous visitors to our cattle quite at defiance." "But you talk about temples," said Sir James. "Do you really think there are more buildings here than we can see?" "My dear sir," cried the doctor, "I just climbed up fifty or sixty feet amongst the masses of rock, and as far as I can see in three directions there seems to be quite a wilderness of natural and artificial ruins." "Then what do you propose?" said Sir James. "To have the waggons drawn up across that opening that lies between those two walls." "Walls!" said Mark. "You mean that ravine of old stones that looks like a split made by an earthquake." "My dear boy," said the doctor enthusiastically, "that earthquake, as you call it, I am sure was caused by men. What we see across there are two walls." "Well, they don't look like it," said Dean. "Not as they are, boy," said the doctor, "crumbled, grown over, and in utter ruins; but I have had a look long enough to satisfy me that all this was built up--perhaps thousands of years ago. We can prove all that by-and-by. I want to see everyone at work making what will be an easy task--a strongly fortified little camp into which no lions can break and we can sleep in peace." "Yes," said Sir James; "those are the words of wisdom, boys, and we shan't have to go far for our materials. But I don't see any water."