Not only was I exhausted with all the terrors I had passed and our long midnight flight, but the wound where Jana had pinched out a portion of my frame, inflamed by the riding, had now grown stiff and intolerably sore, so that every step gave me pain which sometimes culminated in agony.

Moreover, it was no use giving in, foodless as we were, for Marut had carried the provisions, and with the chance of Jana returning to look us up.

So I stuck to it and said nothing.
For the first ten miles the country seemed uninhabited; doubtless it was too near the borders of the Black Kendah to be popular as a place of residence.

After this we saw herds of cattle and a few camels, apparently untended; perhaps their guards were hidden away in the long grass.

Then we came to some fields of mealies that were, I noticed, quite untouched by the hailstorm, which, it would seem, had confined its attentions to the land of the Black Kendah.