We must take it
quietly till it warms up a bit."
Gradually the feeling of stiffness passed off, and going at a steady but
quiet pace they made their way along the road, to which they had
returned after they had gone far enough to be sure that they were beyond
the hearing of the Boers and Kaffirs. From time to time they stopped to
listen for the tread of horses, which could have been heard a long way
in the still night air, but they were neither met nor overtaken. After
walking for five hours they came upon a stream that, as they knew,
crossed the line at Ingagone station and ran into the Buffalo. They had
gone but ten miles, and decided to leave the road here, follow the
stream up half a mile, and then lie up. Chris admitted that he could not
go much farther, and as they would not cross another stream for some
distance they could not, even putting his wound aside, do better than
stop here. Sankey was equally contented to rest, for his arm, which he
still carried in a sling, was aching badly.
"It does not feel sore," he said, "or inflamed, or anything of that
sort; it just aches as if I had got rheumatism in it. I dare say I shall
have that for some time; I have heard my father say that injuries to the
bones were often felt that way for years after they were apparently
well, the pain coming on with changes of weather.
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