As he walked he listened intently for the sound of guns.

Once or twice he fancied that he heard them, but he was quite unable to judge of the direction.

He had been out with the Houssa about six hours before he strayed from him in the pursuit of the butterfly, and they had for some time been walking towards the camp, in order to reach it by nightfall.
Thus he thought, that at that time, he could only have been some three or four miles distant from it.

Supposing that he had run due south, he could still be but eight miles from the stream, and he thought that in three hours' walking he might arrive there.

In point of fact, after leaving the Houssa the butterfly had led him towards the southeast, and as the stream took a sharp bend to the north a little distance above the camp, he was many miles farther from it than he expected.