About midday
He was mad with the fear of death and knew not what he did . All that day we travelled on through a rich , flat country that , as we could tell from various indications , had once been widely cultivated . Now the fields were few and far between , and bush , for the most part a kind of bamboo scrub , was reoccupying the land . About midday we halted by a water-pool to eat and rest , for the sun was hot , and here the four men who had carried off the boy 's body rejoined us and made some report . Then we went forward once more towards what seemed to be a curious and precipitous wall of black cliff , beyond which the volcanic-looking mountain towered in stately grandeur . By three o'clock we were near enough to this cliff , which ran east and west as far as the eye could reach , to see a hole in it , apparently where the road terminated , that appeared to be the mouth of a cave . The Kalubi came up to us , and in a shy kind of way tried to make conversation .