ould have elapsed since death. It was a ghastly
find, this black, rigid corpse, with its eyeless sockets and teeth bared
and set; a ghastly find in the subdued gloom of the shadowing
thundercloud, with the blue lightning playing down upon the lonely
veldt. But there was worse to follow.

For, exploring farther, Roden came with equal suddenness upon several
corpses, half a dozen at least. All were contorted as in the agonies of
a violent death, and all were riddled more or less with bullet wounds.
What was the secret of this conflict here, he wondered? Who had been
engaged in it? Whose the victory? Would he next come upon the bodies
of those of his own colour? Looking up suddenly his eyes fell upon a
most melancholy object. It was the charred remnant of a burned house.

Now the mystery stood explained. Those whose remains he had found had
been shot down by the inmates; slain in self-defence. But, those
inmates! Clearly the savages had been victorious; and--what of the
inmates?

The walls stood, the dirty whitewash showing livid in contrast to the
black, charring action of the names. The roof had fallen in, and the
empty apertures, where the windows had been, gaped wide like the
staring, sightless sockets of the corpse. The house had been of no
great dimensions, and was clearly the dwelling of some small farmer. A
low, crumbling sod wall shut in a sorry-looking "land," containing now
only a few trampled cornstalks; and hard by were the broken-down fences
of a sheep kraal.

Strong-nerved as he was, Roden Musgrave could not repress a quickening
of the pulses, a shrinking of the heart, as he drew near to explore the
interior of the ruin. What further dread secret was he about to light
upon? The mangled corpses of the white inmates, entombed beneath their
own roof-tree, a prey to the devouring assegai of the savage? He
expected nothing less.

But a very few minutes' search convinced him that the place contained no
human remains. He was puzzled. What had become of the unfortunate
settlers? That there had been a fierce and sanguinary battle was
evident, but it was impossible that the savages could have been beaten
off, else would the house not have been fired. Herein was a mystery.

The situation of the place was gloomy and forbidding to the last degree,
the black rain standing deep within that lonely kloof, and, lying
around, the grim earthly remains of those who had assailed it. Opposite
rose a ru