It was fortunate that since the great storm the rainfall had been light; otherwise much of the ground would now have become swamp, and put him at a disadvantage compared with the enemy on the well-kept high road. Tom had always been known among his friends as a good "foot-slogger," and, hardened as he now was by constant exercise, he had no difficulty in keeping up with his lithe and limber guides. The party covered the first twelve miles in less than three hours, over a track that ran almost due south from the nullah, and was very little obstructed. Then, however, they came into broken country, with steeper ascents and descents and thicker vegetation, where the pace was necessarily slackened. Once or twice the men had to use their implements, and Tom chafed at the delay; but he let no sign of impatience escape him, and found a few cheery words of praise a potent stimulus to his willing negroes. Presently they came to a hill-stream flowing southward. An idea struck Tom. "Does this stream cross the high road?" he asked. The scouts replied through Mwesa that it did. "Then is there a bridge?" He learnt that a bridge spanned the stream some distance east of the post for which he had been making. The stream, which was much swollen after a period of heavy rain, had cut a deep and wide channel, and sometimes rose to within an arm’s-length of the bridge. Now, however, the rainfall for some days having been slight, it was likely that the water was two men’s height below the trestles of which the bridge was made. This information caused Tom to change his objective. Instead of continuing along the forest track that led directly to the scouting post, he followed the course of the stream, and in some twenty minutes came in sight of the bridge far below. Calling a halt, he sent one of the men to the scouting post on a hill-top invisible from his present position, to inquire of the man stationed there whether he had seen anything of the enemy’s columns, or of patrols. The scout’s report being reassuring, Tom led his party down to the road, through the brushwood, rank grass, and bushy shrubs that lined the bank of the stream. The ground within twenty yards of the road had evidently been at some time cleared of the taller growing vegetation, no doubt to destroy cover. But the lesser plants had sprung up only the more thickly, furnishing safer cover even than the larger shrubs and trees above.