On the fourth day after they left the river they found themselves upon
gentle sloping veld that by degrees led them upwards to high land where
it was cold and healthy and there were no mosquitoes. For two days they
trekked over these high lands, which seemed to be quite uninhabited save
by herds of feeding buck, till at length they attained their crest, and
below them saw a beautiful mimosa-clad plain which the guides told them
was the Sisa Country.
"The Promised Land at last! It makes me feel like another Moses," said
Thomas, waving his arm.
"Oh, isn't it lovely!" exclaimed Tabitha.
"Yes, dear," answered her mother, "but--but I don't see any town."
This indeed was the case because there was none, the Sisa kraal, for it
could not be dignified by any other name, being round a projecting
ridge and out of sight. For the rest the prospect was very fair, being
park-like in character, with dotted clumps of trees among which ran,
or rather wound, a silver stream that seemed to issue from between two
rocky koppies in the distance.
These koppies, the guides told them, were the gates of Sisa Town. They
neglected to add that it lay in a hot and unhealthy hill-ringed hollow
beyond them, the site having originally been chosen because it was
difficult to attack, being only approachable through certain passes.
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