em all away. Boss John no
got nothing soon."

"You are sure my father said you were to go with me, Joeboy?" I said
after a few minutes' pause.

"Um," he said, nodding his head fiercely. "Say, `Take care my boy,
Joeboy.' Joeboy take care Boss Val."

He caught up his shield and sprang to his feet, with the assagais
trembling in his big hand, looking as if he could be a terrible
adversary in a close conflict, though helpless against modern weapons of
war.

This thought made me think of myself and my own position.

"Very well, Joeboy. I say you shall come with me."

He nodded.

"But you'll have to lend me one of your assagais till I can get a
rifle."

"Boss Val got rifle gun," he said sharply.

"Where? No; I have only my knife."

Joeboy laughed, and ran to the side of the rift, where he began to
scratch in the sand, and a few inches down laid bare the muzzle of my
rifle, gave it a tug, and it came out with the well-filled bandolier
attached.

I caught at it with a cry of eager joy, and began to carefully dust away
every particle of sand that clung to it before slipping on the belt,
forgetting the aching pains in my wrists and left leg, as something like
a glow of confidence ran through me. Then came back the thought of
home, with its smiling fields, orchard, and garden around the house we
had raised upon the land won from the wilderness; and the thought that I
was to be exiled from it all in consequence of this war; and the
injustice of the Boers raised a spirit of anger against them which
helped me to pull myself together and frowningly resolve to prove myself
a man.

"Action, action," I muttered. "I should have liked to go back and see
them all again; but I must begin at once, before I am taken. What would
they do with me?" I said aloud; and a glance at Joeboy's face showed me
that, awkward though he was at speaking, he comprehended every word I
had said.

"Big Boss Boer," he said, nodding, "say Boss Val come fight. No Boss
Val fight? _Whish, whish, whish, crack, cruck_!"

He went through the movement of one wielding a bullock-lash, and
imitated the sound it made through the air and the loud cracking when it
struck home upon quivering flesh. Then he went on, "Boss Val no fight
now! _Bang, bang_!"

"Flog me the first time I refuse, Joeboy, and shoot me the next time."

"Um."

"Well, then, we will not give them the chance."

Joeboy shook his head violently.

"What Joeboy do now, Bos