So there, in the starlight, on that lonely table-land in South Africa, the two true men clasped hands in silence, and their hearts drew nearer to each other than they had ever been drawn before.

The second day, the road in places skirted a forest in which the yellow tree and the great beech were the most prominent trees, creepers grew around them, and vines trailed over their branches; marvelously tinted flowers mingled with them, and the scene was enchanting.

More than once a band of antelope was seen scudding away in the distance; here and there a zebra fled from before them, and once a pair of giraffes were discerned afar off over the plain.  Though it was the beginning of winter, the tsetse fly bothered their stock a good deal, but the Boers cut branches from the trees and covered the animals with them when the sun was hottest and the insects most troublesome.

After the fourth day the road began to ascend, and at last the point was reached where the vehicles had to be given up, and the saddle and pack animals from the capital had to be brought into use.  The real hills had been reached.  The trail ran over a succession of sharp mountain ridges, and narrow valleys.  It was not a well-made trail on the ridges, and the flanks of the ridges were so abrupt and rocky that progress was very slow; moreover, it was clear that to build a road on the line of the trail, over which heavy loads could be hauled, would be a most expensive, almost impossible, undertaking.

It required three days to make the trip of forty miles.

Finally, though, the last summit was crossed, and after a heavy descent, there spread out another valley, and on a ridge beyond, from the mountain side, could be seen something like a dump, with rock piled upon it.  The two friends recognized the spot at the same moment and stopped their animals in the trail to take in the surroundings.  They estimated that the mountains must be a spur of the Drakenberg Range, that they were within the basin drained by the head waters of the Vaal River, and that they were in the Southwestern Transvaal.  The mountains of that point had a general course northeast and southwest, and it was clear that the mine was practically over the range in approaching from the direction of Port Natal.

“It’s all right,” said Jordan, “’cept it seems to me like we orter uv cum down on ther other side of Africa, and cum in from ther West.  From this way it would need a pack train of bald eagles ter bring in supplies, while ter get a mill in—­Good Lord!”

“I fear you are right, as usual, Tom,” said Sedgwick, “but if, as I suspect, the mine is of no account, it will not matter much.”

“‘Zactly,” said Jordan.  “Thar’s no use tryin’ ter put up collateral on which ter borrer trouble ‘fore we know anythin’ ’bout ther mine.”

So they pressed on and made their camp that night near a great spring that the miners had lived by while opening the mine.  Next morning both Americans were up early, and, the breakfast disposed of, they went to the mine with buckets of water and hammers.