ave me some very useful information, that is, information
which would have been useful if those in authority had deigned to pay
any attention to it when I passed it on.

"Just as he had finished speaking I thought that I heard a sound in the
dense green bush behind us. It reminded me of the noise a man makes
when he tries to stifle a cough, and frightened me. For if we had been
overheard by a spy, Magepa was as good as dead, and the sooner I was
across the river the better.

"'What's that?' I asked.

"'A bush buck, Macumazahn. There are lots of them about here.'

"Not being satisfied, though it is true that buck do cough like this,
I turned my horse to the bush, seeking an opening. Thereon something
crashed away and vanished into the long grass. In those shadows, of
course, I could not see what it was, but such light as remained glinted
on what might have been the polished tip of the horn of an antelope
or--an assegai.

"'I told you it was a buck, Macumazahn,' said Magepa. 'Still, if you
smell danger, let us come away from the bush, though the orders are that
no white man is to be touched as yet.'

"Then, while we walked on towards the ford, he set out with great
detail, as Kaffirs do, the exact arrangements that he proposed to make
for the handing over of his daughter and her child into my care. I
remember that I asked him why he would not send her on the following
morning, instead of two mornings later. He answered because he expected
an outpost of scouts from one of the regiments at his kraal that night,
who would probably remain there over the morrow and perhaps longer.
While they were in the place it would be difficult, if not impossible,
for him to send away Gita and her son without exciting suspicion.

"Near the drift we parted, and I returned to our provisional camp and
wrote a beautiful report of all that I had learned, of which report, I
may add, no one took the slightest notice.

"I think it was the morning before that whereon I had arranged to meet
Gita and the little boy at the drift that just about dawn I went down to
the river for a wash. Having taken my dip, I climbed on to a flat rock
to dress myself, and looked at the billows of beautiful, pearly mist
which hid the face of the water, and considered--I almost said listened
to--the great silence, for as yet no live thing was stirring.

"Ah! if I had known of the hideous sights and sounds that were destined
to be heard ere long in this same haun