The same arid barren country seemed spread on every side; and when at length I began occasionally to stumble and fall from weakness hope abandoned me, and I determined to return direct to my comrades and get them to make one more effort to proceed and search for it in a southerly direction.
TREACHEROUS INTENTIONS OF KAIBER, THE NATIVE.
I therefore told Kaiber that such was my intention, and directed him to guide me to the party.

With apparent alacrity he obeyed my orders; but after leading me about some time in an extraordinary manner he told me that he had lost his way and could not find them.

His look was so very plausible when he said this, and he seemed so grieved at the circumstance, that for a moment I believed his tale; but I felt convinced that we could not be at any very great distance from them and therefore fired one barrel of my gun; the echo of this sound, never heard in these solitudes before, rang loudly through the woods, remoter distances caught it up, and at length it gradually died away: anxiously did I now listen for a repetition of the report, for I knew, were they within hearing, the men would instantly fire again to acknowledge the signal I had made; but minute after minute passed on and no answering signal struck my ear.

I sat down and applied my ear to the ground; every sense became absorbed in the single one of hearing, but not the remotest sound that I could distinguish broke the frightful solitude of these vast woods.

I remained seated on the ground for a few minutes, still hearing no answer to my shot, till the conviction gradually forced itself on my mind that the native had been leading me astray.