Tom pondered this information. He had no chance if he was caught; the likelihood of his being able to release Mirambo had almost vanished. And what if the man, by some lucky stroke, were released? Would he consent to escape without his family? There were five in all: the larger the party, the more difficult to evade pursuit. "It’s all utterly hopeless," thought Tom. "They will see it for themselves if I go and talk to them on the spot." He told the boys what he proposed to do, at the same time warning them that no good would come of it. The promise overshadowed the warning: the m’sungu would go; every other good thing would follow. Half vexed, half amused by what seemed sheer unreason, Tom bade them sleep: perhaps with morning they would see facts as they were. Before the glimmering dawn had penetrated the nullah, when the four-footed creatures had slunk to their dens and the birds were beginning to stir, the three clambered down on the outside of the zariba and started on their long tramp. Tom wished to reach the plantation before mid-day; he would then perhaps see for himself how the German drilled his dusky recruits. On arriving in the neighbourhood of the plantation, Mwesa struck off to the left, and led the way stealthily through dense bush where there was no path, and none but himself could have found the track of his own previous journeys. They came presently to the stream that supplied the plantation with water. Climbing down the steep moss-covered bank, they crept quietly along the bed until they reached the thorn fence, which formed an impenetrable barrier across the stream. In the bank, just on the outside, Mwesa pulled aside a curtain of rank grass, revealing a hole scarcely larger than a drain pipe. Mushota crawled into it, Mwesa signed to Tom to follow him: he himself entered last, having remained to see that the grass fell naturally over the entrance to this narrow tunnel. The passage through the tunnel took less than a minute, but Tom felt almost suffocated before he reached open air again. He said to himself that it was like crawling in a grave. Some day, he thought, the earth will fall in; he wondered that such a tunnel, made with no art, had not collapsed long ago. Its inner end opened into the hollow trunk of a tree. Climbing until his eyes were on a level with a small hole scooped out of the wood, he looked out upon the plantation.