"Doesn't he! Why, he began by telling me that Peter Dance had promised to look after the bullocks and help Dunn. He said he liked driving, but he was fond of hunting too, and he should like a change now and then." "Well, let's ask the doctor." "I have, and he said that he can't take everybody, because everything's new as yet, and the camp must be protected." "Well, that's true," said Dean, "and we want to go." "But it's all right," said Mark. "Father says that he will be glad of a day's rest, and he will stay and be sentry." "Now, boys!" cried the doctor just then, and a short time later the well armed party started to see what they could make out of their strange surroundings, each of the men carrying now either a billhook or a small sharp hatchet stuck in his belt. They soon found though their progress was so impeded by trees and tangled growth that the doctor turned as much as was possible to what proved to be kopje after kopje of piled up stones in their natural state, to find that the rocks were scored with ravine and gully, while in the higher parts some of these took the form of cavernous hollows pretty well choked with creepers, vines and thorns, and into which they could peer, to find darkness, while their voices sounded echoing, hollow and strange. Every here and there too they came upon signs that the hollows had been crossed by piled up stones looking like rough walls, which half cut off the entrances. In another place what seemed to be a cavern was completely shut in, save that a hole was left, into which Mark pitched a loose stone that he managed to dislodge, to hear it go rumbling away into the darkness as if it had fallen to where there was a steep slope. "There's something to see there," said the doctor, "some day when we are provided with lanterns and a rope or two. Why, boys, all this grows on one. There's no doubt now that we are amongst ruins, and how far they extend it is impossible to say. Stop here a few minutes, and let's have a look round. This bit is evidently natural kopje." The party stood and sat about the steep slope of rock, and taking out a small field glass the doctor carefully scanned the rocky expanse for a few minutes, before handing it to the boys, who used it in turn. "Why, it is a wilderness, doctor," cried Mark. "You look there," he continued, returning the glass, "just to the left of that clump of trees. I am sure that must have been a wall. You can see the what-you-may-call-them--layers of stones--courses. They are rough enough. But it must have been built up, because every here and there regularly holes are left." "Yes," said the doctor, "you are quite right;" and he closed the glass again. "That is a regular chequer pattern. That must have been the top of the wall, and just below I made out a line of stones laid edgeways to form a zig-zag band. Old buildings, my boy, without doubt." "But I want to see where our little chap found the gold," said Mark.