ars ago a
great savage with a high nose, who talked a sort of Arabic which, like
Inez, I understand, having lived on the coast, turned up one day and
said he wanted to trade. I asked him what in, and he answered that
he would like to buy some children. I told him that I was not a
slave-dealer. Then he looked at Inez, who was moving about, and said
that he would like to buy her to be a wife for his Chief, and offered
some fabulous sum in ivory and in gold, which he said should be paid
before she was taken away. I snatched his big spear from his hand, broke
it over his head and gave him the best hiding with its shaft that he had
ever heard of. Then I kicked him off the place. He limped away but when
he was out of reach, turned and called out that one day he would come
again with others and take her, meaning Inez, without leaving the price
in ivory and gold. I ran for my gun, but when I got back he had gone and
I never thought of the matter again from that day to this."

"Well, he kept his promise," I said, but Robertson made no answer, for
by this time that thundering dose of bromide and laudanum had taken
effect on him and he had fallen asleep, of which I was glad, for I
thought that this sleep would save his sanity, as I believe it did for a
while.

We reached Strathmuir towards sunset, too late to think of attempting
the pursuit that day. Indeed, during our trek, I had thought the matter
out carefully and come to the conclusion that to try to do so would be
useless. We must rest and make preparations; also there was no hope of
our overtaking these brutes who already had a clear twelve hours' start,
by a sudden spurt. They must be run down patiently by following their
spoor, if indeed they could be run down at all before they vanished into
the vast recesses of unknown Africa. The most we could do this night was
to get ready.

Captain Robertson was still sleeping when we passed the village and of
this I was heartily glad, since the remains of a cannibal feast are not
pleasant to behold, especially when they are----! Indeed, of these I
determined to be rid at once, so slipping off the waggon with Hans and
some of the farm boys, for none of the Zulus would defile themselves by
touching such human remnants--I made up two of the smouldering fires,
the light of which the _voorlooper_ had seen upon the sky, and on to
them cast, or caused to be cast, those poor fragments. Also I told the
farm natives to dig a big grave and i