Jack Penny, who had crouched down beside the basin, "why,
you might cook eggs in this."

"That you might, Penny," said the doctor.

"But we ain't got any eggs to cook," said Jack dolefully. "I wish we'd
got some of our fowls' eggs--the new-laid ones, you know. I don't mean
them you find in the nests. I say, it is hot," he continued. "You
might boil mutton."

"Eh! whar a mutton? Boil mutton?" cried Jimmy, running up, for he had
caught the words.

"At home, Jimmy," I said, laughing. The black's disgust was comical to
witness as he tucked his waddy under one arm, turned his nose in the
air, and stalked off amongst the rocks, in the full belief that we had
been playing tricks with him.

He startled us the next moment by shouting:

"Here um come! Gun, gun, gun!"

He came rushing back to us, and, moved by his evidently real excitement,
we took refuge behind a barrier of rock and waited the coming onslaught,
for surely enough there below us were dark bodies moving amongst the low
growth, and it was evident that whatever it was, human being or lower
animals, they were coming in our direction fast.

We waited anxiously for a few minutes, during the whole of which time
Jimmy was busily peering to right and left, now creeping forward for a
few yards, sheltered by stones or bush, now slowly raising his head to
get a glimpse of the coming danger; and so careful was he that his black
rough head should not be seen, that he turned over upon his back, pushed
himself along in that position, and then lay peering through the bushes
over his forehead.

The moving objects were still fifty yards away, where the bush was very
thick and low. Admirable cover for an advancing enemy. Their actions
seemed so cautious, too, that we felt sure that we must be seen, and I
was beginning to wonder whether it would not be wise to fire amongst the
low scrub and scare our enemies, when Jimmy suddenly changed his
tactics, making a sign to us to be still, as he crawled backwards right
past us and disappeared, waddy in hand.

We could do nothing but watch, expecting the black every moment to
return and report.

But five minutes', ten minutes' anxiety ensued before we heard a shout
right before us, followed by a rush, and as we realised that the black
had come back past us so that he might make a circuit and get round the
enemy, there was a rush, and away bounding lightly over the tops of the
bushes went a little pack of a small kind of