Next morning, however, when we were making ready to begin hunting, a Basuto Kaffir appeared who, on being questioned, said that he was one of Sekukuni's people sent to this district to look for two lost oxen.

I did not believe this story, thinking it more probable that he was a spy, but asked him whether in his hunt for oxen he had come across buffalo.
He replied that he had, a herd of thirty-two of them, counting the calves, but that they were over the Oliphant's River about five-and-twenty miles away, in a valley between some outlying hills and the rugged range of mountains, beyond which was situated Sekukuni's town.

Moreover, in proof of his story he showed me spoor of the beasts heading in that direction which was quite a week old.
Now for my part, as I did not think it wise to get too near to Sekukuni, I should have given them up and gone to hunt something else.

Anscombe, however, was of a different opinion and pleaded hard that we should follow them.

They were the only herd within a hundred miles, he said, if indeed there were any others this side of the Lebombo Mountains.