Making a detour, they presently left the town behind them, and kept on due south. They had no fear whatever of anyone being on watch beyond Wesselton, and therefore stepped out boldly over the slightly undulating ground. Once or twice Yorke struck a match and looked at his compass, to be sure that they were keeping their course. "I think we are near the river now, baas," Peter said at last. "What makes you think that, Peter?" "Smell the water." "Do you, Peter? I did not know that it had any smell." "Yes, baas. Oxen and deer and sheep all can smell it. Oxen always quicken their pace when they get near a pool." "That would seem to show that you are right, but still I don't think there can be any smell; but there may be more damp in the air near water, and their senses in that way are more delicate than that of a white man. As you say you think we are near water I have no doubt you are right. Anyhow, I hope you are, for I have knocked the skin off my shins in half a dozen places among these rocks, and I have pretty nearly twisted my ankle as often, so I shall be glad enough to lie down. I certainly had several hours' sleep yesterday, but that did not make up for the loss of sleep the night before; besides, my feet are getting very tender. I have not walked, in all the months I have been out here, as much as during these two nights." "Baas walks very well. No Dutchman ever walked half as far as you do." "Perhaps not, Peter; they never use their legs. A Boer would get on a horse if he only wanted to go fifty yards to fetch anything. I used to be a good walker, but on the farm I got to be almost as lazy as the Dutchmen." A quarter of an hour later a line of bushes rose in front of them. "That looks as if the river were near." "Just on other side of the bushes, baas." So it turned out, and after climbing down to it, taking a long drink, for they had emptied their water-bottles before starting, they took a mouthful of food and lay down among the bushes. "There is not the least occasion to keep watch," Yorke said. "It will be morning soon, and if either of us wake, we can peep out from the edge of the bushes and see if there are any Dutchmen in sight. If there are not, we can sleep on as long as we like." Yorke did not wake till the sun was almost overhead. The native was crouching down near the bushes. "Well, Peter, do you see anything?" he asked. "I have seen Boers at that house there going in and out. They just rode in, waited half an hour, and rode away again. They did not look about at all; just paying a visit." "We did not see the house last night, though we must have passed very close to it." "We did not look for houses, baas, we looked for river." "But as there are horses and cattle grazing about, I wonder we did not startle some of them. They must have been farther away from the house. They would have been sure to move if we had passed near them."