ader rode along in a dejected state of mind, one
of the advance-guard or scouts came back with excited looks, saying that
a large band of Dutch farmers was encamped down in a hollow just beyond
the rise in front of them. The chief of the Kafirs ordered the scout
sternly to be silent, at the same time glancing at Orpin. Then he
whispered to two men, who quietly took their assagais and stationed
themselves one on either side of their white prisoner--for such he
really was.

Orpin now felt certain that the group of principal men who drew together
a little apart were concerting the best mode of attacking the emigrant
farmers, and his heart burned within him as he thought of them resting
there in fancied security, while these black scoundrels were plotting
their destruction. But what could he do--alone and totally unarmed? He
thought of making a dash and giving the alarm, but the watchful savages
at his side seemed to divine his intentions, for they grasped their
assagais with significant action.

"A desperate disease," thought Orpin, "requires a desperate remedy. I
will try it, and may succeed--God helping me." A thought occurred just
then. Disengaging his right foot from the stirrup, he made as if he
were shortening it a little, but instead, he detached it from the
saddle, and taking one turn of the leather round his hand, leaped his
horse at the savage nearest him and struck him full on the forehead with
the stirrup-iron. Dashing on at full speed, he bent low, and, as he had
hoped, the spear of the other savage whizzed close over his back. The
act was so sudden that he had almost gained the ridge before the other
mounted Kafirs could pursue. He heard a loud voice, however, command
them to stop, and, looking back, saw that only one Kafir--the leader--
gave chase, but that leader was a powerful man, armed, and on a fleeter
horse than his own. A glance showed him the camp of the emigrant
farmers in a hollow about a mile or so distant. He made straight for
it. The action of the next few seconds was short, sharp, and decisive.

The Dutchmen, having had a previous alarm from a small Kafir band, were
prepared. They had drawn their waggons into a compact circle, closing
the apertures between and beneath them with thorn-bushes, which they
lashed firmly with leather thongs to the wheels and dissel-booms or
waggon-poles. Within this circle was a smaller one for the protection
of the women and children.

Great was