e boys eagerly.

"Oh, a curious new animal that they are reporting. They say it looks
half way between a giraffe and a zebra, and it's found in the great
central forests. Ah, boys, you have got a fine time before you, and as
I said before, I envy you both."

"Then why not think better of Sir James's invitation?" said the doctor.
"I am sure you would be able to assist us wonderfully. Say you will
come."

"Can't," said the captain firmly. "Duty. The people about here are
very peaceable now, but they may break out at any time; and suppose
there was an _emeute_ amongst these blacks while I was away shooting. I
thank you, Sir James, most heartily, but it is impossible. You will
have a capital guide, though, who will show you the way far better than
I could."

"Yes, the guide," said Mark hastily. "That's why we have come up this
morning."

"Well, you couldn't have come at a better time," said the officer. "He
has been far away, for some reason best known to himself, but he marched
into camp last evening, looking as if he were monarch of all he
surveyed."

"Then that's the man we saw!" cried Dean excitedly.

"Tall, black, fine-looking fellow, well built, and a savage chief every
inch of him?"

"Yes," said Mark eagerly; "and hardly any clothes."

"That's the man. There, I will send one of my men to fetch him here;"
and stepping to the window he called to the sentry on duty to pass the
word for someone to hunt out Mak and bring him there.

"Mak!" said the doctor, laughing. "What, have you got Scotch blacks
here?"

"Oh, no. We call him Mak because he is like one of the Makalaka.
Properly he belongs to a great tribe called the Ulakas, who used at one
time to occupy the kopjes about here. I suppose that is why this place
has come to be known as Illakaree."

Only a few minutes later the tall, stately-looking black of the
preceding evening was seen crossing the barrack enclosure, carrying his
spear over his shoulder and looking down with a sort of contempt at the
young bugler by his side, to which the boy retorted by looking up as
contemptuously at the stalwart black, thinking of him as a naked nigger.

"Now I don't wish to interfere," said the captain. "I only want to be
of service to you gentlemen out in this wild place, if I can. It is no
presumption to say, I suppose, that you can't understand the Illaka
dialect?"

"Certainly not," said the doctor. "I daresay I could get on if the man
addressed