Part 39 (1/2)

Then, like two fierce and strange dogs meeting, they stood fronting each other--the one with a commanding look, the other with lowering frown and quivering nostrils.

The stranger spoke, but the Gaika shook his head in turn.

”What does he say?” asked Hume.

”He speaks strangely, sieur.”

”Is he a witch-doctor?”

”He is not of my people, nor of the Zulus, and his toes turn out.”

”I wonder if this is our hermit?” said Webster.

”Ay, the same thought occurred to me; and the man who could leap over that fence as he did could have no difficulty in knocking me down.”

While they were talking the stranger looked at them furtively.

Hume cut a piece off a twist of Boer tobacco, and handed it to the man, who took it with a gleam of satisfaction, cut a fragment off with his a.s.segai and put it into his mouth. The Gaika stalked away and crept under the waggon, the stranger stopping his jaws to watch him, until he heard the sigh of a man who lies down to sleep, when he appeared more at ease. Presently he squatted by the fire, spreading his hands before him, and, in a guttural voice, said, ”Brandy.”

”His vocabulary may be limited,” said Webster dryly; ”but it is useful,”

and he went to the waggon-box for the stone demijohn in which they carried the Dop brandy.

Hume had his eye on the man and saw him s.h.i.+ft an a.s.segai to his right hand, whereupon he pulled back the hammer of his rifle with a click that drew a swift, furtive glance upon him.

The brandy was poured out and drunk with a resounding smack, and in jubilation he shouted out, after the Kaffir fas.h.i.+on, a few words of praise, and at the noise the oxen stirred.

”Yoh!” came a sharp exclamation.

”Is that you, Klaas?”

”The bush, sieur--the bush; it moves!”

”What the devil--Look after that fellow, Jim, while I see into this,”

and Hume bolted round the waggon.

”Well, Klaas?”

The Gaika was not there, but Hume heard him talking to the oxen, and ran forward.

”What is it?”

”Men come in to cut rheims again, and take away the bush fence.”

”Where are they?” said Hume, throwing up his rifle.

”They run when they see me. That man by the fire no good. So I went by the waggon and watch--bymby, when he drink and cry out one word, he shout in Zulu, _baleka_ (quick). So I leave the waggon.”

”Hold that fellow!” shouted Hume, but there came a stifled cry from Webster, and when he got round the man had gone, and Jim was rubbing his eyes.