The rascal was cunning enough to hide his reluctance, and we set out. But after we had gone a day’s journey I noticed that our march was steadily veering away from the line of the railway, and taking a northerly direction. I said nothing, determined to counteract these tactics at the right moment. At the end of the third day, after a slow progress compared with the speed of the train, we pitched our camp at the foot of the range, about forty miles, as near as I could judge, from the point where it was pierced by the railway. The next morning the caravan wound its way to the summit of the ridge, and I looked down on a broad valley, watered by a river, and broken up by small spurs jutting out from the main watershed. As the guide was about to plunge down, so as to cross the stream, I checked him abruptly. ‘We are not going that way. I shall turn southward now, and keep along the summit of the ridge till we come to the railway.’ The man’s face turned as black as a thunder-cloud. ‘You cannot go that way,’ he snorted. ‘Why?’ He hesitated. ‘Because it is impassable. The horses will break down.’ ‘We will go on till they do,’ I answered sternly. ‘And let this be your last attempt to disobey me. At the next I send you back, and go on without you.’ The man slunk forward, muttering curses, which I affected not to hear. But I had not yet frightened him sufficiently. At the next halt one of the drivers came to me and reported that a horse had gone lame. ‘Bring it here,’ I commanded. He went away, and returned leading the animal. ‘Go,’ I said sternly. ‘Take the horse back with you, and take rations for three days. Do not let me see you again.’ The driver looked thoroughly crestfallen. He slouched back to his comrades without another word. I waited till half an hour had passed, then I rose and walked over to the camp-fire, round which my followers were seated, the driver among them. ‘How is it that you are still here?’ I demanded. ‘The horse is all right again,’ was the surly answer. ‘So much the worse for you.’ I took out my revolver in one hand, and my watch in the other. ‘In ten minutes from now I aim this revolver at you, and fire,’ I remarked. ‘It kills at two hundred metres. I should advise you to get out of range.’ I do not think I have ever seen a man get through his preparations in less time than then. Long before the allotted time was up, he was well out of reach, galloping down the slope of the hill. In every expedition through a wild country there comes a moment which decides who is to be master. That moment past, I had no fear of further trouble. I was now able to unbend with the guide; I informed him that I expected to find gold, and promised him a rich reward if I succeeded with his aid.