afirs about
him. 'The leader of the baboons is Naqua, and it was he
who taught them the trick they played us tonight.'

"'Naqua?' repeated Shadrach, feeling cold and weak.

"'The bushman,' explained the old man. 'The yellow man with
the long lean arms who gave false counsel to the baas.'

"'It is true,' came the chorus of the Kafirs. 'It is true;
we saw it.'

"Shadrach pulled himself together and raised a hand to the
lintel of the door to steady himself.

"'Fetch me Naqua!' he ordered, and a pair of them went upon
that errand. But they came back empty; Naqua was not at his
hut, and none had news of him.

"Shadrach dismissed the Kafirs to patch their wounds, and
at sun-up he went down to the lands where the eight dead
Kafirs still lay among the corn, to see what traces
remained of the night's work. He had hoped to find a clue
in the tracks, but the feet of the Kafirs and the baboons
were so mingled that the ground was dumb, and on the grass
of the baboons' return there remained, of course, no sign.
He was no fool, my stepsister's first husband, and since a
wild and belly-quaking tale was the only one that offered,
he was not ready to cast it aside till a better one were
found. At any rate it was against Naqua that his
preparations were directed.

"He had seven guns in his house for which ammunition could
be found, and from among all the Kafirs on the land he
chose a half dozen Zulus, who, as you know, will always
rather fight than eat. These were only too ready to face
the baboons again, since they were to have guns in their
hands; and a kind of ambush was devised. They were to lie
among the corn so as to command the flank of the beasts,
and Shadrach was to lie in the middle of them, and would
give the signal when to commence firing by a shot from his
own rifle. There was built, too, a pile of brushwood lying
on straw soaked in oil, and this one of them was to put a
light to as soon as the shooting began.

"It was dark when they took their places, and then
commenced a long and anxious watch among the corn, when
every bush that creaked was an alarm and every small beast
of the veld that squealed set hearts to thumping. From
where he lay on his stomach, with his rifle before him,
Shadrach could see the line of ridge of rocks over which
the baboons must come, dark against a sky only just less
dark; and with his eyes fixed on this he waited. Afterwards
he said that it was not the baboons he waited for, but t