Part 4 (1/2)

Presently, from these kraals, where the Heer Marais's horned beasts and sheep were penned at night, about one hundred and fifty of the for of the horses, for he was a large and prosperous far, and with it that of the shouting ofoff the stock,” said Marie ”Oh! my poor father, he is ruined; it will break his heart”

”Bad enough,” I answered, ”but there are things that ht be worse

Hark!”

As I spoke there ca feet and of a ar chant

Then in the edge of theabove the hollohere the cattle kraals were, figures appeared, hostly and unreal The Kaffirs weretheir un On up the slope they ca lines, several hundreds of the their spears, their war-plus blown back by the breeze, the lust of slaughter in their rolling eyes Two or three of theuns, which they fired as they ran, but where the bullets went I do not know, over the house probably

I called out to Leblanc and the Kaffirs not to shoot till I did, for I knew that they were pooreffective Then as the captain of this attack carowing swiftly, was strong enough to enable uish him by his apparel and the rifle which he held--I loosed at him with the ”roer” and shot hih his body mortally wounded another of the Quabies behind These were the first men that I ever killed in war

As they fell, Leblanc and the rest of our people fired also, the slugs froe, which was just long enough to allow them to scatter When the smoke cleared a little I saw that nearly a dozen men were down, and that the rest, dismayed by this reception, had halted If they had coht have rushed the place; but, being unused to the terrible effects of firearms, they paused, amazed A number of them, twenty or thirty perhaps, clustered about the bodies of the fallen Kaffirs, and, seizing un, I fired both barrels at these with such fearful effect that the whole regi their dead and wounded on the ground As they ran our servants cheered, but I called to the well that the ene happened, although we could hear the somewhere near the cattle kraal, about a hundred and fifty yards away Marie took advantage of this pause, I re us I, for one, was glad enough to get it

Now the sun was up, a sight for which I thanked Heaven, for, at any rate, we could no longer be surprised Also, with the daylight, soer twice as terrible tothe -places as best we could, so as toabove his head a stick to which was tied a white ox-tail as a sign of truce I ordered that no one should fire, and when the man, as a bold fellow, had reached the spot where the dead captain lay, called to hie well

He answered that he had coe: that Quabie's eldest son had been cruelly murdered by the fat white man called ”Vulture” who lived with the Heer Marais, and that he, Quabie, would have blood for blood Still, he did not wish to kill the young white chieftainess (that was Marie) or the others in the house, hoive up the fat white ht make him ”die slowly,” Quabie would be content with his life and with the cattle that he had already taken by way of a fine, and leave us and the house unmolested

Nohen Leblanc understood the nature of this offer he went perfectly an to shout and swear in French

”Be silent,” I said; ”we do not ht all this trouble on us Your chance of life is as good as ours

Are you not ashamed to act so before these black people?”

When at last he grew er that hite folk were not in the habit of abandoning each other, and that ould live or die together Still, I bade hieance taken on him and all his people would be to wipe them out till not one of them was left, and therefore that he would do well not to cause any of our blood to flow Also, I added, that we had thirty men in the house (which, of course, was a lie) and plenty of ammunition and food, so that if he chose to continue the attack it would be the worse for hi this the herald shouted back that we should every one of us be dead before noon if he had his way Still, he would reporthis answer

Then he turned and began to walk off Just as he did so a shot was fired froround, then rose again and staggered back towards his people, with his right shoulder shattered and his arh the s

”I, parbleu!” shouted Leblanc ”Sapristi! that black devil wanted to torture reat Napoleon Well, at least I have tortured him whom I meant to kill”

”Yes, you fool,” I answered; ”and we, too, shall be tortured because of your wickedness You have shot aof truce, and that the Quabies will never forgive Oh! I tell you that you have hit us as well as hiht have been spared”

These words I said quite quietly and in Dutch, so that our Kaffirsrath

But Leblanc did not answer quietly

”Who are you,” he shouted, ”you wretched little Englishreat Napoleon?”

Now I drew my pistol and walked up to the uessed that he had drunk more of the brandy in the darkness ”If you are not quiet and do not obey me, who am in coive you to these athered round hi ominously ”Do you knohat they will do with you? They will throw you out of the house, and leave you to settle your quarrel with Quabie alone”