Arcoll must be found and warned, and that at once, or Laputa would slip over to Inanda's Kraal under cover of dark.

It was a matter of minutes, and on these minutes depended the lives of thousands.

It was also a matter of ebbing strength, for with my return to common sense I saw very clearly how near my capital was spent.

If I could reach the highroad, find Arcoll or Arcoll's men, and give them my news, I would do my countrymen a service such as no man in Africa could render.

But I felt my head swimming, I was swaying crazily in the saddle, and my hands had scarcely the force of a child's.