ter! Did I not say there was magic in
these 'bright stones'? And who shall say it is not so? Has not my
master for a whole moon been lifeless and sad, until he looked even as
the old cow that died of lung-sick but yesterday? And has not the very
sight of the magic stone again brought fire to his eye, till he is
again even as the young bull that killed two of those Bushmen dogs also
but yesterday? Who shall say it is not magic?"

"Inyati," I stammered, coming back to my senses, and ignoring his
extremely doubtful compliments, "speak, man; where did you get this?"

"In my own land, master; a far land, many moons' trek from here, and
where there are many. But few dare touch them except indeed the devil-
men and they are not men at all, but devils! Though I feared them
little even then . . . and now, now that I have a gun (for surely my
master will give me the little gun that speaks many times for this
magic stone?) I fear them not at all! And we will go back and get many
more if my master so wishes and I will see again the woman who gave me
the stone as a talisman long years ago!"

Give him "the little gun that speaks many times" the Winchester for a
diamond worth a king's ransom?

"Inyati," I said, though I was sorely tempted, "the gun is thine; not
indeed for the stone, for that I will not take from thee, and it is
worth more than all the guns and cattle I possess. But for the gun,
guide thou me to this land of thine, that I may find these stones thou
callest magic."

"That will I do readily, master," he answered, "and, in truth, I am
well content to keep the stone, for the sake of the woman who gave it
me. And there are many more! And did I not say truthfully that the
stones were magic? See now, my master, the very sight of one has made
my master give me the desire of my heart the little gun that speaks
many times."

I gave him the Winchester there and then, and never did I see a human
being so delighted.

Late into the night we sat and talked, and planned, whilst the Bushmen
sat round their camp fire, and clucked and chattered in their queer-
sounding speech, gorging themselves to repletion on the offal of an
eland I had shot the previous day.

I learnt that Inyati's country lay far to the north-east, across the
dreaded waterless stretches of the unknown Kalahari. He had fled from
it years ago, his life forfeit to the priests or "devil-men" as he
called them for some cause that he did not explain, or that my