Only I did not see any smoke rising from those houses as there should have been at this hour of the day, when men cooked their evening food.

The moon would be up presently, I knew, but meanwhile it was dark and the tired horse stumbled and floundered among the stones which lay about at the foot of the hill.
I could bear it no longer.
"Hans," I said, "do you stay here with the horse.

I will creep to the houses and see if any dwell there." "Be careful, baas," he answered, "lest you should find Zulus, for those black devils are all about." I nodded, for I could not speak, and then began the ascent.

For several hundred yards I crept from stone to stone, feeling my way, for the Kaffir path that led to the little plateau where the spring was, above which the shanties stood, ran at the other end of the hill.

I struck the spruit or rivulet that was fed by this spring, being guided to it by the murmur of the water, and followed up its bank till I heard a sound which caused me to crouch and listen.
I could not be sure because of the ceaseless babble of the brook, but the sound seemed like that of sobs.