can. The Baas was fond of them."

The dwarf saluted and went. "Ah!" he said to himself as he waddled down
the hill where he hoped to find game, "ah! you do not fear men dead or
living--overmuch; yet, Otter, it is true that you are better here in
the sun, though the sun is hot, than yonder in the cave. Say, Otter, why
does Baas Tom look so awful now that he is dead--he who was so gentle
while yet he lived? Cheat did not look awful, only uglier. But then you
killed Cheat, and the Heavens killed Baas Tom and set their own seal
upon him. And what will Baas Leonard do now that his brother is dead and
the Basutos have run away? Go on digging for the yellow iron which is
so hard to find, and of which, when it is found, no man can even make a
spear? Nay, what is that to you, Otter? What the Baas does you do--and
here be the spoor of an impala buck."

Otter was right. The day was fearfully hot. It was summer in East
Africa, or rather autumn, the season of fever, thunder and rain, a time
that none who valued their lives would care to spend in those latitudes
searching for gold with poor food and but little shelter. But men who
seek their fortunes are not chary of hazarding their own lives of
those of others. They become fatalists, not avowedly perhaps, but
unconsciously. Those who are destined to die must die, they think, the
others will live. And, after all, it does not greatly matter which they
do, for, as they know well, the world will never miss them.

When Leonard Outram, his brother, and two companions in adventure heard
from the natives that at a particular spot on the mountains, nominally
in the Portuguese territory near the lowest branch of the Zambesi, gold
could be dug out like iron ore, and when, at the price of two Tower
muskets and a half-bred greyhound, they received a concession from the
actual chief of that territory to dig up and possess the gold without
let or hindrance from any person whatsoever, they did not postpone their
undertaking because the country was fever-stricken and the unhealthy
season drew on. In the first place, their resources were not great at
the moment; and in the second, they feared lest some other enterprising
person with three Tower muskets and two grey-hounds should persuade the
chief to rescind their concession in his favour.

So they journeyed laboriously to the place of hidden wealth, and with
the help of such native labour as they could gather began their search.
At first they we