ountains. Where was Gert?

Dismounting, he led the animal a little way off the road, and sat down
under a large boulder to think out the situation. The warning of Hans
Vermaak again came into his mind. It looked genuine as viewed by
subsequent lights, but whether it was so or not, it was useless, for the
murderers had altered their original plan, clearly resolving to provide
against the contingency of his choosing the other of the two roads, by
shooting him before he should come to the point where these parted.
Well, they had not shot him, but it had been a narrow shave--very.

But if they had not shot him had they shot Gert? It looked uncommonly
like it. Only the four shots had been fired--of that he felt certain--
but since his horse had taken matters into its own hands, or, rather,
legs, he had obtained neither sight nor sound of Gert. Seated there in
the darkness, he was conscious of a very considerable feeling of
indignation begotten of a dual reason--that he had had a mean advantage
taken of him, and that his property, in the person of Gert Bondelzwart,
had been interfered with.

What was to be done next? Should he go back? To do so would be to
commit an act of fatal rashness, for it would be to expose himself once
more to the fire of his concealed cowardly foes, who would not be likely
to let slip a second opportunity. True, he had his revolver, but not
for a moment would they be likely to come near enough to give him any
chance of using it. No--to go back would be simply throwing away his
life. Had it been a white man and a comrade, he would unhesitatingly
have done so. But Gert was a Griqua, and, though not exactly a savage,
had all the cunning and resource and endurance of generations of savage
ancestry. If he were alive, why then, amid the rocks and the darkness,
he would soon elude his enemies; if he were dead, Colvin did not see any
sense in throwing away his own life merely to ascertain that fact.

The moon had gone in, and a misty scud-wrack spreading itself overhead
was creeping around the dim crags on high. There was a smell of rain in
the air, and a fitful puff of wind came singing down the valley, laden
with an icy breath. Colvin shivered, and as he looked anxiously skyward
a large drop or two of rain plashed down on his face. There would be a
deluge in a moment, and he had nothing to meet it with save the clothes
in which he stood up.

Suddenly the horse, which had been standing w