miled and said--'Wait.'

"I think it was three days later that one night towards dawn I
was awakened by hearing a dog barking outside my hut, as though
it wished to call attention to its presence. It barked so
persistently and in a way so unlike a Kaffir dog, that at length
about dawn I went out of the hut to see what was the matter.
There, standing a few yards away surrounded by some of Zikali's
people, I saw Lost and knew at once that it was an English
Airedale, for I have had several of the breed. It looked very
tired and frightened, and while I was wondering whence on earth
it could have come, I noticed that it had a silver-mounted collar
and remembered Nombe and her talk about you and a dog that
carried silver on it. From that moment, Allan, I was certain
that you were somewhere near, especially as the beast ran up to
me--it would take no notice of the Kaffirs--and kept looking
towards the mouth of the kloof, as though it wished me to follow
it. Just then Nombe arrived, and on seeing the dog looked at me
oddly.

"'I have a message for you from my master, Mauriti,' she said to
me through Heda, who by now had arrived upon the scene, having
also been aroused by Lost's barking. 'It is that if you wish to
take a walk with a strange dog you can do so, and bring back
anything you may find.'"

"The end of it was that after we had fed Lost with milk and meat,
I and six of Zikali's men started down the kloof, Lost going
ahead of us and now and again running back and whining. At the
mouth of the kloof it led us over a hill and down into a
bush-veld valley where the thorns grew very thick. When we had
gone along the valley for about two miles, one of the Kaffirs saw
a Basuto pony still saddled, and caught it. The dog went on past
the pony to a tree that had been shattered by lightning, and
there within a few yards of the tree we found you lying
senseless, Allan, or, as I thought at first, dead, and by your
side a Martini rifle of which the stock also seemed to have been
broken by lightning.

"Well, we put you on a shield and carried you here, meeting no
one, and that is all the story, Allan."

He stopped and we stared at each other. Then I called Lost and
patted its head, and the dear beast licked my hand as though it
understood that it was being thanked.

"A strange tale," I said, "but God Almighty has put much wisdom
into His creatures of which we know nothing. Let us thank Him,"
and in our hearts we did