ke a dutiful
wife visiting her husband on commando. And for a purpose
she took no trouble to name to herself, she put in her
pocket a little pug-nosed revolver which Andreas had once
bought, played with for a while, and then forgotten.

"A Kafir came with her, to see to the horses and so on, for
she was to travel in no other manner than that in which
Burghers' wives travel every day; but once clear of the
farm she took the reins and the whip to herself, and drove
swiftly, pushing the team anxiously along the way. So well
did she guide her path, that by evening they were slipping
down the road towards the drift of the Tiger River, and
when the light of day began to be mottled with night, they
had crossed the drift and were passing up the right bank.
When at length the darkness came, they were at the foot of
the hills which the commando held.

"Here Anna alighted, and left the 'boy' to outspan and
watch the cart. In a basket on her arm she had a bottle of
whiskey and a bottle of medicine for rheumatism, that would
make her coming seemly, and with the little revolver in her
pocket knocking against her knee at every step, she faced
the dark and the empty veld, and began the ascent of the
hill alone. She was come to be a spur to her husband. This
she knew clearly enough, yet as she went along, with the
thin wind of the night on her forehead, she wasted no
thoughts, but bent herself to the business of finding the
laager and coming to Andreas. About her were the sombre
hills, that are, in fact, mere bushy kopjes, but in the
darkness, and to one alone, portentous and devious
mountains. Veld-bred as she was, the business of path-
finding was with her an instinct, like that of throwing up
your hand to guard your eyes when sparks spout from the
fire. Yet in an hour she lost herself utterly.

"She strove here and there, practicing all the tricks of
the hunter to avoid moving in a circle, and so on. She
wrenched her skirts through bushes that seemed to have
hands. She plunged over stones that were noisy and ragged
underfoot; she tumbled in ant-bear holes and bruised
herself on ant-hills. And after a long time she sat down
and listened--listened patiently for the alarm of firing to
beckon a course to her. And there she waited, her basket on
her knee, her arms folded across it, for all the world like
a quiet woman in church, with no tremors, but only a mild
and enduring expectancy.

"It came at last, a tempest of shooting t