hey're for. And there are other
signs."

"Now I come to think of it, I've seen them before, in the Transkei."

"Yes. You did service there with the Police, I'm told. Well, we don't
want to scare the young lady, but you tip the office from me to
Waybridge to clear. There'll be hell in a week or two at the outside."

"I'll tell him. But are you going to remain on here?"

"I dare say. They won't hurt me. It wouldn't pay them for one thing.
Have a drop of grog?"

"Thanks."

The store-keeper fished out a bottle of Boer brandy--of antipodal
quality, of course, to that which he retailed in the native trade--and
then they went outside and rejoined Hazel. She, drinking her coffee,
narrated their experience at the wayside kraal.

"That's Ngombayi's crowd," pronounced Sampson, "and they're a bad lot.
They're a bit disturbed now, but they'll quiet down in a week or two."

Dick Selmes, contrasting this cool utterance with the prediction he had
just heard, felt amused, but did not show it. Then, after a little more
chat, they took their leave, returning by a devious route, so as to
avoid the objectionable kraal.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

THE GENERALSHIP OF ELSIE MCGUNN.

It was evening, but Waybridge had not returned. He had started early
that morning for Fort Isiwa, to deliver a lot of slaughter oxen for
commissariat purposes, for which he had received a very good price
indeed. He had been selling off as much of his stock as he could, for
although he did not believe the scare would come to anything, still it
was as well to be prepared for the worst, and money in the bank was
better than stock herded from a laager, with all the contingent risks.
So he had set forth in high spirits.

His wife was in no way anxious. There was nothing of the "unprotected
female" about her. If put to it she could level a barrel and reload as
quickly and as calmly as one of the opposite sex; besides, there was
Dick Selmes, who had already proved his grit. He, when he had suggested
moving on, had met with such a whole-souled negative, as to set at rest
any doubts that might have been lingering in his mind as to outstaying
his welcome.

"Why, Mr Selmes, you'd never desert us unprotected _females_," she had
said. "John has to be away a bit, on and off, just now. And now you
want to run away and leave us all alone."

"Eh, that I'm sure he wadna be doing," had struck in Elsie McGunn--who
was clearing the table--with her usua