ed--that is the law of life." Then he turned to the
body of his brother and made it ready for burial as best he might,
closing the eyes, tying up the chin with a band of twisted grass, and
folding the thin toil-worn hands upon the quiet heart.

When all was finished he paused from his dreadful task, and a thought
struck him.

"Where are those Kaffirs?" he said aloud--the sound of his voice seemed
to dull the edge of solitude--"the lazy hounds, they ought to have been
up an hour ago. Hi! Otter, Otter!"

The mountains echoed "Otter, Otter;" there was no other reply. Again he
shouted without result. "I don't like to leave it," he said, "but I must
go and see;" and, having covered the body with a red blanket to scare
away the vultures, he started at a run round some projecting rocks that
bordered the little plateau on which the hut had stood. Beyond them the
plateau continued, and some fifty paces from the rocks was a hollow in
the mountain side, where a softer vein of stone had been eaten away by
centuries of weather.

It was here that the Kaffirs slept--four of them--and in front of this
cave or grotto it was their custom to make a fire for cooking. But on
that morning no fire was burning, and no Kaffirs were to be seen.

"Still asleep," was Leonard's comment as he strode swiftly towards
the cave. In another moment he was in it shouting "Otter, Otter!" and
saluting with a vigorous kick a prostrate form, of which he could just
see the outline. The form did not move, which was strange, for such
a kick should have suffered to wake even the laziest Basuto from his
soundest sleep. Leonard stopped to examine it, and the next moment
started back violently, exclaiming:

"Great heavens! it is Cheat, and he is dead."

At this moment a thick voice spoke from the corner of the cave in Dutch,
the voice of Otter:

"I am here, Baas, but I am tied: the Baas must loosen me, I cannot
stir."

Leonard advanced, striking a match as he came. Presently it burned up,
and he saw the man Otter lying on his back, his legs and arms bound
firmly with rimpis of hide, his face and body a mass of contusions.
Drawing his hunting-knife Leonard cut the rimpis and brought the man
from out the cave, carrying rather than leading him.

Otter was a knob-nosed Kaffir, that is of the Bastard Zulu race.
The brothers had found him wandering about the country in a state of
semi-starvation, and he had served them faithfully for some years.
They had chris