he's painted!" And, whoever he was, the way in which he
tended to my throbbing head, advising me not to talk, but to rest and
sleep, soon soothed my shaken nerves, and I slept again till broad
daylight.

I could hear the low murmur of voices, and sitting up, I saw that
Jantje and Kambala had put in an appearance and were talking in an
unknown tongue to my friend of the night before--a white man--but
surely the strangest-looking being I had ever beheld.

First of all he was a hunchback, and his body was twisted and distorted
to a remarkable degree yet in spite of his curved shoulders he was of
more than average height, and of a breadth incredible. But his face!
who can describe it? Seamed and scarred in deep gashes, as though by
some hideous torture, the nose broken and flattened almost upon the
cheek, there remained but little human about the awful countenance
except the eyes. But these, as I found later, were of a beauty and
expressiveness to make one forget their terrible setting. Large,
pellucid, of a bright hazel, there was something magnetic in their
straight and honest gaze; and I can well believe that before he met
with his awful disfigurement their owner must have been a man of superb
appearance.

As I moved, he came towards me, holding out his hand as he did so, and
a fine, warm-hearted grip he gave me.

"Better, eh?" he said. "No don't get up; you've had an ugly smack, and
must take care of yourself for a bit. And I'm afraid," he continued, as
he sat down beside me, "that I was the cause of your accident for your
horse shied at me, and you came near breaking your neck!"

"Shied at you?" I queried, in surprise for there was scarce cover for a
cat just where I had been thrown "but where were you, then I never saw
you?"

"No, but I saw you," he replied grimly, "and having been the cause of
your downfall, I could do no less than look after you till your boys
came."

Thus strangely began an acquaintance that lasted only all too short a
time, but that was full of interest for me; for I found my new friend
to be a remarkable man in more ways than in appearance. His knowledge
of the region we were in was wonderful, the few natives we met treated
him with every sign of respect and fear, and he seemed equally
conversant with their language, as with that of my own boys, Jantje the
Hottentot, and Kambala the Herero.

The habits of the game, the properties of each bush and shrub, each
game-path and water-hole,