n'--he grinned
at his companion--'is more easily frightened than those of the
Drakensberg. I am of the bushmen, and I know. If you flay one of those
up yonder, the others will make war, and where one came before, ten
will come every night. A baboon is not a fat, lazy Kafir; one must be
careful with him!'

"'How would _you_ drive them away, then?' asked Shadrach.

"The yellow man shuffled his hands in the dust, squatting on his
heels. There, there! See--the baboon in the yard is doing the very
same thing!

"'If I were the baas,' said the yellow man, 'I would turn out the
young men to walk round the fields at night, with buckets to hit with
sticks, and make a noise. And I--well, I am of the bushmen.' He
scratched himself and smiled emptily.

"'Yes, yes?' demanded Shadrach. He knew the wonderful ways of the
bushmen with some animals.

"'I do not know if anything can be done,' said the yellow man, 'but,
if the baas is willing, I can go up to the rocks and try.'

"'How?'

"But he could tell nothing. None of these wizards that have charms to
subdue the beasts can tell you anything about it. A Hottentot will
smell the air and say what cattle are near, but if you bid him tell
you how he does it, he giggles like a fool and is ashamed.

"'I do not know if anything can be done,' the yellow man repeated. 'I
cannot promise the baas, but I can try.'

"'Well, try, then,' ordered Shadrach, and went away to make the
necessary arrangements to have the young Kafirs in the fields that
night.

"They did as he bade, and the noise was loathsome--enough to frighten
anything with an ear in its head. The Kafirs did not relish the watch
in the dark at first, but when they found that their work was only to
thump buckets and howl, they came to do it with zest, and roared and
banged till you would have thought a judgment must descend on them.
The baboons heard it, sure enough, and came down, after a while, to
see what was going on. They sat on their rumps outside the circle of
Kafirs, as quiet as people in a church, and watched the niggers
drumming and capering as though it were a show for their amusement.
Then they went back, leaving the crops untouched, but pulling all the
huts in one kraal to pieces as they passed. It was the kraal of the
old white-tufted Shangaan, as Shadrach learned afterwards.

"Shadrach was pleased that the row had saved his corn, and next day he
gave the twisted man a lump of tobacco. The man tucked it into hi