so, who
deserted with some Lascar stokers, and left the women and children to
their fate. My God, I'm going mad. I'm going mad! If you have any mercy
in you, give me something to drink."

"All right," I said, "I will. Sit here and wait a minute."

Then I went to the waggon and poured out a stiff tot of spirits into
which I put an amazing doze of bromide from a little medicine chest I
always carry with me, and thirty drops of chlorodyne on the top of it.
All this compound I mixed up with a little water and took it to him in a
tin cup so that he could not see the colour.

He drank it at a gulp and throwing the pannikin aside, sat down on the
veld, groaning while the company watched him at a respectful distance,
for Hans had joined the others and his tale had spread like fire in
drought-parched grass.

In a few minutes the drugs began to take effect upon Robertson's
tortured nerves, for he rose and said quietly,

"What now?"

"Vengeance, or rather justice," I answered.

"Yes," he exclaimed, "vengeance. I swear that I will be avenged, or
die--or both."

Again I saw my opportunity and said, "You must swear more than that,
Robertson. Only sober men can accomplish great things, for drink
destroys the judgment. If you wish to be avenged for the dead and to
rescue the living, you must be sober, or I for one will not help you."

"Will you help me if I do, to the end, good or ill, Quatermain?" he
added.

I nodded.

"That's as much as another's oath," he muttered. "Still, I will put my
thought in words. I swear by God, by my mother--like these natives--and
by my daughter born in honest marriage, that I will never touch another
drop of strong drink, until I have avenged those poor women and their
little children, and rescued Inez from their murderers. If I do you may
put a bullet through me."

"That's all right," I said in an offhand fashion, though inwardly I
glowed with pride at the success of my great idea, for at the time I
thought it great, and went on,

"Now let us get to business. The first thing to do is to trek to
Strathmuir and make preparations; the next to start upon the trail. Come
to sit on the waggon with me and tell me what guns and ammunition you
have got, for according to Hans those savages don't seem to have touched
anything, except a few blankets and a herd of goats."

He did as I asked, telling me all he could remember. Then he said,

"It is a strange thing, but now I recall that about two ye