The very day of Frank Oates’s death his brother William--returned from his yachting trip to Spitzbergen--sailed from England for South Africa, to join him, accompanied by Mr. Gilchrist, the gentleman already mentioned in these pages, whom the brothers had met when they first reached Durban two years previously, and had afterwards travelled with in the interior, William Oates having returned with him to England. The day these two sailed from England--about an hour before the vessel left--letters were brought to them on board from Frank Oates, which had only just reached the country, giving a full account of all his plans, and of his wanderings up to the end of the October previous. The two friends reached Durban on the 15th of March, and at once commenced preparations for proceeding up country to meet the returning traveller. Mr. Selous, who had met Frank Oates at Tamasancha, as mentioned in the previous chapter, had now come down from the interior, and reported having seen him early in December, then on his way to the Zambesi and in perfect health. There was indeed just at this time, as it happened, a report at Pietermaritzburg that the traveller had died of fever in the interior, but--as subsequently proved by a comparison of dates--this report had certainly no foundation in the actual fact, and was found on enquiry at the time to be unsupported by any reliable evidence. The preparations already in progress for a speedy start into the interior, to meet him on his way back, were therefore still proceeded with, and waggons, oxen, and all the necessary outfit got ready for the purpose. Another week and William Oates and his friend would have started on their way northwards, when--on the 1st of April, a fortnight only after their arrival--authentic intelligence reached them of Frank Oates’s death in the interior. The object of proceeding on the journey was now therefore completely changed, and, to enable William Oates to return at once to England and there offer to his bereaved mother such comfort as he might be able, his friend Mr. Gilchrist, in no common spirit of self-sacrifice, himself insisted on taking the sad journey alone into the interior--to bring down thence and convey to England all the deceased’s effects; to hear such particulars as he could of his death, for the satisfaction of his friends at home; and if possible--a service attended with especial difficulties--to visit the grave, and place over it, to mark the spot, a stone prepared for this purpose in Pietermaritzburg.