I tied my water-sack to a piece of the deck-chair which I had been
using for a walking-stick, to represent a flag, and propped it up in
the hope that it might be seen by some passing ship or a patrol. It
would also mark the place where my body would be found. I then lay down
and went to sleep for a couple of hours. Soon after I awoke I noticed
three figures walking along the beach, about half a mile from me. I
stood up and signalled to them, and they stopped, looked towards me,
and then moved on.
"Whoever you are," I thought, "I am going to follow you." So I picked
up my flag, arrows, and water-bottles--I must have looked a regular
Robinson Crusoe--and went towards them. They sat down and waited
for me. When I got up to them I thought they were natives, as they
appeared to be black, and it was only after Mackenzie spoke that I
recognized his voice, and knew that they were my own mates, whom I had
lost three days previously.
"Good heavens, Pat!" cried Mackenzie. "How have you lived? Where did
you get water?"
By way of reply I handed him my water-bottles. He took the cork out of
one, smelt it, and threw both away; they smelt horrible. He then gave
me some water, and I may say that I never tasted anything so sweet
in my life before. I only took a little at a time, but each mouthful
seemed to give me fresh life, and my tongue, which was swollen, got
back to its normal size, and the horrid dry feeling in my throat went
away. We remained here about an hour, during which time my mates and I
compared notes as to what had happened since we parted on the Wednesday.
It was now February 13th, and a Saturday afternoon. They told me that
on arrival at the sealing station, the evening we separated, they
turned into a house and fixed up a lamp with some seal oil which they
found. They left the lamp burning at the window so that I could see it,
and being very tired, all of them went to sleep. The lamp, however,
must have gone out. In the morning, finding that I had not turned up,
Franzen and Maritz went back to see if they could find me. In the
meantime Mackenzie hunted for shellfish among the rocks, and managed
to find enough for two meals. There was a plentiful supply of water,
as the previous night's rain had half-filled several old tanks. After
going back a few miles Maritz and Franzen found the lid of a small tin
box which they knew I had been carrying in my haversack. From this they
realized that I had passed their sleeping-place during the night, and
was probably somewhere in front. To make quite sure, however, they
waited all that day, and resumed the journey on Friday morning. They
noticed my "spoor," but had lost it some hours previously.
Mackenzie advised me to throw away the arrows I had been carrying, as
one of us might easily get scratched and poisoned with them. I was
now feeling much refreshed, so we all "trekked" on together. We had
not gone very far when we saw a white sea-bird, with red on its bill,
standing on the sand. It looked sick, so we gathered round it, and I
gave Maritz my piece of deck-chair to kill it with.
We then set about collecting firewood, there being any amount of
driftwood scattered about the beach, and with the aid of flint and
steel, which Mackenzie carried with him, we lit a great blazing fire.
In the meantime Maritz had skinned the bird, and Franzen had got some
salt water in a kettle they had picked up at Cape Cross. After boiling
our bird for about fifteen minutes we tackled it, my share being the
liver and one of the legs. It did not taste at all bad. We then sat by
the fire for some little time, feeling a good deal better, and again
resumed our journey. We walked until 3 a.m., and then tried to sleep,
but found it too cold. At daybreak we resumed our tramp. It began to
drizzle, and about nine o'clock we came to some flat, rocky ground,
where I borrowed a water-bottle from Franzen, and managed to fill it.
We walked on until about 3 p.m., when we sighted what appeared to be
tall chimney-stacks in the distance. Franzen asked me what I thought
they were, and I said, "Perhaps some abandoned place, like the one we
passed up the coast."
"I think it's Swakopmund," he said.
This I ridiculed, for I had quite given up hopes of seeing the town. I
was feeling very weak now, and my feet were frightfully sore on account
of the sand getting through my _schoons_. The others decided to push
on as fast as possible, and, if the place turned out to be Swakopmund,
to send back help. Before long they were out of sight, and I was alone
once more. However, I "trekked" on, and just as the sun was going down
I saw, to my huge delight, smoke emerging from a chimney-stack. I knew
then that it must be the place we were looking for, and this made me
plod on with fresh energy.