nothing left on him but
the upper part of a pair of old trousers, but still Hans, undoubtedly
Hans. He ran to me, and seizing my foot, kissed it again and again,
weeping tears of joy and stuttering:

"Oh, baas, to think that I should find you who were dead, alive, and
find myself alive, too. Oh! baas, never again will I doubt about the Big
Man in the sky of whom your reverend father is so fond. For after I had
tried all our own spirits, and even those of my ancestors, and met with
nothing but trouble, I said the prayer that the reverend taught us,
asking for my daily bread because I am so very hungry. Then I looked
out of the hole and there you were. Have you anything to eat about you,
baas?"

As it chanced, in my saddle-bags I had some biltong that I had saved
against emergencies. I gave it to him, and he devoured it as a famished
hyena might do, tearing off the tough meat in lumps and bolting them
whole. When it was all gone he licked his fingers and his lips and stood
still staring at me.

"Tell me your story," I repeated.

"Baas, I went to fetch the horses with the others, and ours had strayed.
I got up a tree to look for them. Then I heard a noise, and saw that the
Zulus were killing the Boers; so knowing that presently they would kill
us, too, I stopped in that tree, hiding myself as well as I could in a
stork's nest. Well, they came and assegaied all the other Totties, and
stood under my tree cleaning their spears and getting their breath, for
one of my brothers had given them a good run. But they never saw me,
although I was nearly sick from fear on the top of them. Indeed, I was
sick, but into the nest.

"Well, I sat in that nest all day, though the sun cooked me like beef
on a stick; and when night came I got down and ran, for I knew it was
no good to stop to look for you, and 'every man for himself when a black
devil is behind you,' as your reverend father says. All night I ran, and
in the morning hid up in a hole. Then when night came again I went on
running. Oh! they nearly caught me once or twice, but never quite, for
I know how to hide, and I kept where men do not go. Only I was hungry,
hungry; yes, I lived on snails and worms, and grass like an ox, till
my middle ached. Still, at last I got across the river and near to the
camp.

"Then just before the day broke and I was saying, 'Now, Hans, although
your heart is sad, your stomach will rejoice and sing,' what did I see
but those Zulu devils, thou