concerned the journey was one of doggedness

"I must! I must! If it is necessary, I must! I have sworn!" "Don't you suppose I shall take precautions?" "Oh, I hope so! I do hope so!" she cried. Her distress was so genuine, her unconsciousness of the anomaly of her attitude so naive that Kingozi forbore even to smile. "I must go on," he concluded simply. Chapter 22 The Second Messengers The return journey began. A remarkable tribute to Kingozi's influence, not only over his own men, but over those of the new safari, might have been read from the fact that there was brought for correction not one grumble, either over the halving of the _potio_ or the apparently endless counter- marching. As far as the white members were concerned the journey was one of doggedness and gloom. Kingozi's strong will managed to keep to the foreground the details of his immediate duty; but to do so he had to sink all other considerations whatever. The same effort required to submerge all thought of the darkened years to come carried down also every recollection of the past. The Leopard Woman ceased to exist, not because she had lost importance, but because Kingozi's mind was focussed on a single point. And she. Perhaps she understood this; perhaps the tearing antagonism of her own purposes, duties, and desires stunned or occupied her--who knows? The outward result was the same as in the case of her companion. They walked apart, ate apart, lived each in his superb isolation, going forward like sleep-walkers to what the future might hold. Thus they travelled for ten days. In mid-march, then, Cazi Moto came to tell Kingozi that two more messengers had arrived. "They are not people of our country," he added. "They are _shenzis_ such as no man here ever saw before." "What sort of _shenzis?_" "Short, square men. Very black. Hair that is long and stands out like a little tree." "What do they say?" "_Bwana_, they speak a language that no man here understands. And this is strange: that they do not come from the direction of Nairobi." "Perhaps they are men from M'tela."