But how did Andries manage it? He heard no shot, he saw none of my
flares. He could not tell me; as a matter of fact he, himself, did not
know. His feat could only be explained through some theory of
unconscious cerebration. Andries was elderly, stout and somewhat
lethargic, he had never read any book but the Bible, and of that there
was quite a lot he did not understand. But the trackless desert was to
him as familiar as my study was to me, and he had been able to pilot his
wagon-ship straight to that spot--through the inky darkness--with as
little uncertainty as though the sun had been shining. The experience
of a lifetime would not have taught me to perform that marvel which
Andries did quite as a matter of course.