inbooi was his host's right-hand man. He was a capital hunter,
and was sent out with Dick what time no one else felt inclined to go,
and in this capacity it was an advantage that he was able to speak
excellent English. Harley Greenoak was not sorry, for his part; for
such was his young charge's "keenness" that he would have dragged him
out all day and every day in quest of some form of sport, and half the
night, too, very frequently.

That evening, after supper, as they were seated indoors, for the farm
was of considerable altitude and the nights were fresh, Dick Selmes was
wondering how he should broach the subject to their host. Old Ephraim
Hesketh was one of the early settlers of 1820. He was a widower, and
lived alone on his vast farm in the wildest recesses of the Rooi
Ruggensbergen. He was a tall, lank old man, of the simplest of habits,
who went to bed with the sun and got up with the same, chewed biltong
when he was hungry, and drank calabash milk when he was thirsty, and,
owing to his solitary life, was laconic and scanty of speech. This
being so, it may be credited that his domestic arrangements were
primitive in the extreme; and even adaptable Dick Selmes had looked a
trifle blank when he first saw his room, with its battered tin
wash-basin, empty-bottle candlestick, bare thatch, and gaping
wainscottings, into which latter a remarkably large centipede was at
that moment disappearing. In short, Simcox's place, though rough, was a
palace compared with Haakdoornfontein, as old Hesketh's place was
called.

"Well, young buffalo hunter," said the latter, as they sat down to an
exceedingly frugal repast, "and how many of my bush-bucks have you
accounted for to-day? We can't provide record buffaloes for you here,
you see. You must get back to the Addo or trek right up-country for
that."

Dick Selmes laughed; then, judging the moment opportune, he launched out
into an account of Kleinbooi's point-blank refusal to enter the
forbidden kloof.

"He was quite right," said the old man, decisively, and his face seemed
to grow serious. "Yes, quite right. In fact, I told him not even to
take you near it if possible, but I suppose he didn't know he was doing
so in the excitement of the hunt."

Dick Selmes' face lit up with eagerness. If this hardened old settler,
who believed in little else, believed in this weird mystery, why, it
would be worth hearing about. "Would you mind--er--spinning the yarn,
Mr Heske