wind had
gone; there was not a sound: but he listened intently. The fire burnt up
into the still air, two clear red tongues of flame.

Then, on the other side of the kopje he heard the sound of footsteps
ascending; the slow even tread of bare feet coming up.

The hair on Trooper Peter Halket's forehead slowly stiffened itself. He
had no thought of escaping; he was paralyzed with dread. He took up his
gun. A deadly coldness crept from his feet to his head. He had worked a
maxim gun in a fight when some hundred natives fell and only one white
man had been wounded; and he had never known fear; but tonight his
fingers were stiff on the lock of his gun. He knelt low, tending
a little to one side of the fire, with his gun ready. A stone half
sheltered him from anyone coming up from the other side of the kopje,
and the instant the figure appeared over the edge he intended to fire.

Then, the thought flashed on him; what, and if it were one of his own
comrades come in search of him, and no bare-footed enemy! The anguish of
suspense wrung his heart; for an instant he hesitated. Then, in a cold
agony of terror, he cried out, "Who is there?"

And a voice replied in clear, slow English, "A friend."

Peter Halket almost let his gun drop, in the revulsion of feeling. The
cold sweat which anguish had restrained burst out in large drops on his
forehead; but he still knelt holding his gun.

"What do you want?" he cried out quiveringly.

From the darkness at the edge of the kopje a figure stepped out into the
full blaze of the firelight.

Trooper Peter Halket looked up at it.

It was the tall figure of a man, clad in one loose linen garment,
reaching lower than his knees, and which clung close about him. His
head, arms, and feet were bare. He carried no weapon of any kind; and on
his shoulders hung heavy locks of dark hair.

Peter Halket looked up at him with astonishment. "Are you alone?" he
asked.

"Yes, I am alone."

Peter Halket lowered his gun and knelt up.

"Lost your way, I suppose?" he said, still holding his weapon loosely.

"No; I have come to ask whether I may sit beside your fire for a while."

"Certainly, certainly!" said Peter, eyeing the stranger's dress
carefully, still holding his gun, but with the hand off the lock. "I'm
confoundedly glad of any company. It's a beastly night for anyone to be
out alone. Wonder you find your way. Sit down! sit down!" Peter looked
intently at the stranger; then he put his