They started off, and the big driver said, loudly enough for those they were leaving to hear, "Thank you, gentlemen; I daresay you two will be able to help me a bit." They started off together on the back trail, Buck Denham pointing out how they had trampled down the herbage, brushing off the dew and here and there breaking down twigs. "Ah!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Here's poor old Peter's trail. See that? He must have crawled along here. But I don't see the spoor of any of my beasts--yes, I do," he cried, a few yards farther. "They went along here in a drove. Then we had better turn off and follow them up. I don't suppose they will have gone so very far. Say, Mr Mark, sir; do you know why I wanted you two to come with me?" "To help find the bullocks," said Dean sharply. The man chuckled as he trotted on along the marks made by the animals. "No," he said. "It's all plain enough. I didn't want any help. Why, you two could find them if you went far enough. I wanted to get summut off my mind." "Something off your mind?" said Mark. "Yes, sir; I don't like to speak out and get another fellow into trouble, but I felt as you two ought to know, and then you could talk it over between yourselves and settle whether you ought to tell the boss." "Tell my father?" said Mark. "Yes, sir, or the doctor; and perhaps he will think the poor fellow's got it bad enough without facing more trouble." "What do you mean, Buck?" cried Dean. "What I was going to say," said Mark. "Well, gen'lemen, only this; we oughtn't to have had a surprise like that. It was Peter Dance's watch, warn't it?" "Yes," cried Mark excitedly, as strange thoughts began to hurry through his brain. "Well, sir, he as good as said as he was sitting down with his shooter across his knees." "Yes, yes," cried Dean. "Well, sir, why didn't he shoot?" "He was too much startled," said Dean. "Poor fellow! I should have been quite as scared, with a lion creeping right up to me like that." "I suppose so, sir. But I don't quite believe that tale. I never 'eerd of a lion creeping up to look at a man who was sitting by a fire." "No," said Mark, in a whisper, as if to himself, and he trotted on the newly made trampled trail of the oxen. "Why should you doubt it?" said Dean sharply. "I have known Peter Dance ever since I was a quite a little fellow. He can be very disagreeable sometimes, but I never found him out in a lie." "No, sir?" said Buck. "Well, I think you have found him out now." "What do you mean?" cried Dean. "Here, Mark, why don't you say something?" "Because I'm listening," said his cousin drily. "Tell him what you think, Buck." "Yes, sir; I will, sir. Well, I think--bah! I am sure--that there was no fire." "What!" cried Dean angrily. "Gone to sleep, sir, and let it out." "How do you know that?" cried Dean, indignant in his defence of his uncle's old servant.