tly seized with an anxious desire to return to
Oudtshoorn, and would have offered himself to Lavie as his guide, if it
had not been that he dared not betray his knowledge of the English
language. He would, however, in all likelihood, soon have left the
Bechuana village alone, if he had not conceived a liking for the English
prisoners, and a desire to serve them in the danger which, as he could
plainly see, was threatening them. He was well acquainted with Maomo's
cruel and vindictive nature. Several persons, towards whom the wizard
had conceived a hatred, had suffered the most terrible tortures and
death through his machinations, and towards no one had he ever felt such
bitter enmity as towards De Walden.

This feeling had been increased by the failure of his schemes, thus far,
to work the missionary's ruin. He had been hoping that the drought,
which often visited the country during the summer months, would give him
the desired opportunity of either obliging De Walden to comply with
Chuma's entreaties to bring down rain by his incantations, or of
provoking the chief's wrath to the uttermost by his refusal. But the
summer, to his infinite vexation, had been extraordinarily cool and
genial, showers falling at short intervals of one another; and causing
abundance of grass and water. What was worse, he could see that Chuma
attributed this exceptional season to De Walden's residence in the
village. He was farther than ever therefore from accomplishing his
object.

But he was not a man to be balked of his purpose; and Kobo, who had
watched him narrowly, felt certain that he had some scheme on foot which
would achieve the object on which his heart was set. He had been absent
for two or three days in the previous week, and when he returned there
was a look of triumphant malice in his face, which he tried in vain to
hide. The only well-grounded hope they could have of escaping his
malicious designs lay in immediate flight. Chuma, as yet, was
favourably disposed, and had taken no steps which would render flight
impossible. But this would not last long; and De Walden must take time
by the forelock, or it would certainly be too late.

Such was the substance of what Kobo imparted to the boys, and which they
made a point of laying before Mr De Walden immediately after his return
to their village.

The missionary listened attentively, and asked several questions as to
Kobo's sources of information, and the details of th