one.

Lying low in the welcome darkness of his hiding-place he could hear
deep-toned voices all round him, some quite near. The impi had returned
from its pursuit of the rescue party, and was searching for its dead and
wounded. Here was a fresh element of danger. What if they should light
upon him? Then the only course left open would be to sell his life as
dearly as possible.

He could hear voices now quite close to his hiding-place. They were
coming straight for him. Crouching there in the gloom, hardly daring to
breathe, he unbuttoned his holster. It was empty! In the excruciating
pain of his injury he had not noticed its unusual lightness. The pistol
was gone. He had dropped it when falling from the horse. He was
totally unarmed, and to that extent utterly helpless.

Not ten yards from his hiding-place the voices stopped. He could hear
some swift ejaculations, then a groan, then another and deeper one. He
had not made sufficient progress, under Verna's tuition, to be able to
make out what was being said, but he gathered that they had found a
wounded comrade. Heavens! but what if the latter had seen or heard him,
and should put them on his track, perhaps under the impression that he
was one of themselves and needed succour?

Then something dug him as with a sharp sting, then another, then
another. It was as though burning needles were being thrust into him,
but he dared not move. Then another. It was literally maddening. He
conjectured he had got into the vicinity of a nest of black ants, but he
could not lie still thus to be devoured alive. They had managed somehow
to get inside his clothing, nor dared he move either to crush or
dislodge them; and the incident brought back stories he had heard from
Ben Halse and others of the old-time way of torturing those accused of
witchcraft: spreadeagling them over an ants' nest to be eaten alive.
The thought was not a pleasant one, bearing in mind his own
helplessness, and now, did he fall into the hands of those without, such
might conceivably be his own fate.

The voices had ceased. He heard a peculiar sound, then a rumbling noise
as of a heavy body struggling upon the earth in the agonies of death.
Then the voices were raised again, but now receding. Soon they were
silent altogether.

Given a little exertion, and South Africa, by reason of the dryness of
its atmosphere, is one of the most thirsty climates in the world,
wherefore, now a burning t