ng army of apes came leaping in a charge
on the main force of the Kafirs. Oh, but that was a wild, a haunting
thing! Great, bull-headed dog-baboons, with naked fangs and clutching
hands alert for murder; bounding mothers of squealing litters that led
their young in a dash to the fight; terrible, lean old bitches that
made for the men when others went for the corn,--they swooped like a
flood of horror on the aghast Kafirs, biting, tearing, bounding
through the air like uncouth birds; and in one second the throng of
the Kafirs melted before them, and they were amid the corn.

"Eight men they killed by rending, and of the others, some sixty,
there was not one but had his wound--some bite to the bone, some gash
where iron fingers had clutched and torn their way through skin and
flesh. When they came to Shadrach and woke him wearily, with the
breathless timidity of beaten men, it was already too late to go with
a gun to the corn-lands. The baboons had contented themselves with
small plunder after their victory, and withdrew orderly to the hills;
and, even as Shadrach came to the door of the homestead, he saw the
last of their marshaled line, black against the sky, moving swiftly
towards the kloofs.

"He flung out his hands like a man in despair, with never a word to
ease his heart, and then the old Shangaan Kafir stood up before him.
He had the upper part of his right arm bitten to the bone and worried,
and now he cast back the blanket from his shoulder and held out the
quivering wound to his master.

"'It was the chief of the baboons that gave me this,' he said, 'and he
is a baboon only in the night. He came through the ranks of them,
bounding like a boulder on a steep hillside, and it was for me that
his teeth were bared. So, when he hung by his teeth to my arm and tore
and snarled, I drew my nails across his back, that the baas should
know the truth.'

"'What is this madness?' cried Shadrach.

"'No madness, but simple deviltry,' answered the Shangaan, and there
came a murmur of support from the Kafirs about him. 'The leader of the
baboons is Naqua, and it was he who taught them the trick they played
us to-night.'

"'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