-headed, the philosophic, had
allowed the impulse of his mad passion to overmaster him. But before he
could pour forth the unrestrained torrent of words which should part
them there and then forever, or bind them more closely for weal or for
woe, Eanswyth suddenly wrenched herself from his close embrace. A
clatter of rapidly approaching hoofs was borne upon the night.

"It's Tom!" she cried, at the same time fervently blessing the friendly
darkness which concealed her burning face. "It must be Tom. What can
he have been doing with himself all this time?"

"Rather! It's Tom, right enough, or what's left of him!" echoed the
loud, well-known voice, as the horseman rode up to the _stoep_ and flung
himself from the saddle. "What's left of him," he repeated grimly.
"Can't you strike a light, Eanswyth, instead of standing there staring
at a man as if he had actually been cut into mince-meat by those
infernal brutes, instead of having only had a very narrow escape from
that same," he added testily, striding past her to enter the house,
which up till now had been left in darkness for prudential reasons, lest
by rendering it more conspicuous the sight might tempt their savage
neighbours, in their present ugly humour, to some deed of violence and
outrage.

A lamp was quickly lighted, and then a half-shriek escaped Eanswyth.
For her husband presented a ghastly spectacle. He was hatless, and his
thick brown beard was matted with blood, which had streamed down the
side of his face from a wound in his head. One of his hands, too, was
covered with blood, and his clothes were hacked and cut in several
places.

"For Heaven's sake, Eanswyth, don't stand there screeching like an
idiotic schoolgirl, but run and get out some grog, for I want an `eye
opener' badly, I can tell you," he burst forth with an angry stamp of
the foot. "Then get some water and clean rag, and bandage me up a bit--
for besides the crack on the head you see I've got at least half a dozen
assegai stabs distributed about my carcase."

Pale and terrified, Eanswyth hurried away, and Carhayes, who had thrown
himself on the sofa, proceeded growlingly to give an account of the
rough usage he had been subjected to. He must have been stealthily
followed, he said, for about half an hour after leaving Nteya's kraal he
had been set upon in the darkness by a party of Kafirs. So sudden was
the assault that they had succeeded in snatching his gun away from him
before