Presently, stopping to rest, he thought he heard voices, and hoped that they came from his own men. He dared not call, nor even move towards them, until he was sure whether they were friends or foes. The voices came nearer. At all costs he must learn who the speakers were, and he sprang up into a leafy tree from which he might get a view of the country around. Spying out cautiously through the foliage, he saw a band of men pushing their way up a bush-covered slope not a hundred yards from his perch. Through the heavy rain he could not at first distinguish them; but as they approached he recognised the deserter, Haroun, leading a couple of askaris. Behind them, out of the bush, emerged Reinecke with his arm in a sling, a younger officer by his side, and a line of askaris following in single file. He shrank back into the tree, dreading lest they should pass immediately beneath him and some sharp-eyed man discover him. But they topped the slope some distance away and passed out of sight. "I have come in the right direction," he thought. "They must be bound for the nullah." Waiting a little, to make sure that no more of the enemy were coming, he slipped down from the tree, and with infinite caution followed in their track. If this led indeed towards the nullah, he would presently be on ground that he knew, and might circumvent them and arrive first. He felt somewhat perplexed. The Arab Haroun had certainly betrayed him: why, then, had Reinecke set out with no more than thirty or forty men? Had Haroun so little respect for the defences of the nullah as to imagine that they could be stormed by so small a force? Had Reinecke so much contempt for his ability to train the negroes as to believe that forty askaris were more than a match for three times their number as well armed as themselves? He set his lips grimly: if such were their ideas, he would promise them a rough disillusionment. For some time he followed them up, always with the greatest caution. At length the sound of voices ahead told him that they had halted. He stopped at once. The rain had almost ceased. In a few seconds he heard a rustling and the squelching of boots not far in front of him, and he dived into the bush at the side of the track and watched. Two askaris tramped past him, in the direction from which they had come. They walked unconcernedly: no suspicion of his presence had brought them back. What, then, was their errand?