a mighty good thing it is
for you, young fellow, as well as for him. You'd have been pounded dust
at the bottom of the fall long before this."

The while the speaker has been fixing a knife to the noosed ram, in such
wise that the distressed native shall be able to detach it and cut
himself loose below water. A warning shout--the noose flies outward--
the man catches it without difficulty, for the distance is not great.
Then, having made it fast beneath his armpits, he dives under the
surface, while the two on the bank--the three in fact, for Gerard now
helps to man the line--keep the ram taut. The latter shakes and quivers
for a moment like a line with a heavy fish at the end; then the ringed
head rises.

"Haul away--he's clear!" is the cry. And in a moment the native is
dragged safe to the bank and landed beside his rescuers.

Having recovered breath, he proceeded to account for the origin of his
mishap. He was on his way to a neighbouring kraal, to obtain possession
of a horse which he had left there. He was carrying a headstall and a
couple of _reims_ for this purpose, and, thinking it a trifle shorter to
ford the river below the drift than at it, had gone into the water
accordingly. But the current proved stronger as well as deeper than he
had expected. He had been swept off his feet, and then the _reims_ had
somehow or other got entangled round his legs, which were practically
tied together, so that he could not swim. It must have been the
headstall which, dragging along the bottom, had so opportunely anchored
him.

"Well, it's the tallest thing I've seen in a good many years," said one
of the men. "_The_ very tallest--eh, George?"

"_Ja_, that's so!" laconically assented George, beginning to shred up a
fragment of Boer tobacco in the hollow of his hand.

The men were transport-riders, travelling with their waggons, which
accounted for the prompt production of the long _reim_ which had borne
so essential a part in the rescue. They had just come over the rise in
time to take in the situation, and with the readiness of resource which
characterises their class, were prompt to act accordingly. But the
object in which Gerard's interest was centred was the man whom he had
been instrumental in saving from a most horrible death.

The latter was a very fine specimen of native manhood, tall, erect, and
broad, and with exquisitely modelled limbs. His face, with its short
black beard, was firm and pleasin