These last, being wild and restless, had gone over, and we soon found the marks of them across the river.
The Doctor, James, Dick, and I started off after them, having armed ourselves for security.

We took a sword a-piece, and each had a pistol.
The ground was moist, and the beasts easily tracked; so we thought an easy job was before us, but we soon changed our minds.
Following on the trail of the cattle, we very soon came on the footsteps of a black fellow, evidently more recent than the hoof-marks; then another footstep joined in, and another, and at last we made out that above a dozen blacks were tracking our cattle, and were between us and them.
Still we followed the trail as fast as we could.

I was uneasy, for we were insufficiently armed, but I found time to point out to the Doctor, what he had never remarked before, the wonderful difference between the naked foot-print of a white man and a savage.

The white man leaves the impression of his whole sole, every toe being distinctly marked, while your black fellow leaves scarce any toe-marks, but seems merely to spurn the ground with the ball of his foot.
I felt very ill at ease.

The morning was raw, and a dense fog was over everything.