ring smous, and of
my desperate ride upon the swift mare to Port Elizabeth, where I just
succeeded in catching the brig Seven Stars before she sailed. Also I
told them of the lucky chances that enabled me to buy the wagons and
find a guide to their camp, reaching it but a few hours before it was
too late.

"It was a great deed," said Henri Marais, taking the pipe from his
mouth, for I had brought tobacco among my stores. "But tell me, Allan,
why did you do it for the sake of one who has not treated you kindly?"

"I did it," I answered, "for the sake of one who has always treated me
kindly," and I nodded towards Marie, who was engaged in washing up the
cooking pots at a distance.

"I suppose so, Allan; but you know she is affianced to another."

"I know that she is affianced to me, and to no other," I answered
warmly, adding, "And pray where is this other? If he lives I do not see
him here."

"No," replied Marais in a curious voice. "The truth is, Allan, that
Hernan Pereira left us about a fortnight before you came. One horse
remained, which was his, and with two Hottentots, who were also his
servants, he rode back upon the track by which we came, to try to find
help. Since then we have heard nothing of him."

"Indeed; and how did he propose to get food on the way?"

"He had a rifle, or rather they all three had rifles, and about a
hundred charges between them, which escaped the fire."

"With a hundred charges of powder carefully used your camp would have
been fed for a month, or perhaps two months," I remarked. "Yet he went
away with all of them--to find help?"

"That is so, Allan. We begged him to stay, but he would not; and, after
all, the charges were his own property. No doubt he thought he acted for
the best, especially as Marie would have none of him," Marais added with
emphasis.

"Well," I replied, "it seems that it is I who have brought you the help,
and not Pereira. Also, by the way, mynheer, I have brought you the money
my father collected on your account, and some L500 of my own, or what is
left of it, in goods and gold. Moreover, Marie does not refuse me. Say,
therefore, to which of us does she belong?"

"It would seem that it should be to you," he answered slowly, "since you
have shown yourself so faithful, and were it not for you she would now
be lying yonder," and he pointed to the little heaps that covered the
bones of most of the expedition. "Yes, yes, it would seem that it should
be to yo