Sammy to all appearance. We got hold of him, and up he came, limp,
senseless, but still holding in his hand a large, thick Bible, bound in
boards. Moreover, in the exact centre of this Bible was a bullet-hole,
or rather a bullet which had passed through the stout cover and buried
itself in the paper behind. I remember that the point of it reached to
the First Book of Samuel.

As for Sammy himself, he seemed to be quite uninjured, and indeed after
we had poured some water on him--he was never fond of water--he revived
quickly enough. Then we found out what had happened.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I was seated in my place of refuge, being as I
have told you a man of peace, enjoying the consolation of religion"--he
was very pious in times of trouble. "At length the firing slackened, and
I ventured to peep out, thinking that perhaps the foe had fled, holding
the Book in front of my face in case of accidents. After that I remember
no more."

"No," said Stephen, "for the bullet hit the Bible and the Bible hit your
head and knocked you silly."

"Ah!" said Sammy, "how true is what I was taught that the Book shall be
a shield of defence to the righteous. Now I understand why I was moved
to bring the thick old Bible that belonged to my mother in heaven,
and not the little thin one given to me by the Sunday school teacher,
through which the ball of the enemy would have passed."

Then he went off to cook the dinner.

Certainly it was a wonderful escape, though whether this was a direct
reward of his piety, as he thought, is another matter.

As soon as we had eaten, we set to work to consider our position, of
which the crux was what to do with the slaves. There they sat in groups
outside the fence, many of them showing traces of the recent conflict,
and stared at us stupidly. Then of a sudden, as though with one voice,
they began to clamour for food.

"How are we to feed several hundred people?" asked Stephen.

"The slavers must have done it somehow," I answered. "Let's go and
search their camp."

So we went, followed by our hungry clients, and, in addition to many
more things, to our delight found a great store of rice, mealies and
other grain, some of which was ground into meal. Of this we served out
an ample supply together with salt, and soon the cooking pots were full
of porridge. My word! how those poor creatures did eat, nor, although
it was necessary to be careful, could we find it in our hearts to stint
them of the