his murdered kindred.

The sun sank beneath the rim of the world, and the purple shades of the
brief twilight deepened over this once peaceful homestead, now a
mausoleum for its butchered inmates lying in their blood. And still
Nidia sat there holding the head of the dead boy in her lap.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

WHAT HAPPENED AT JEKYLL'S STORE.

Jekyll's Store, near Malengwa, was an institution of considerable
importance in its way, for there not only did prospectors and travellers
and settlers replenish their supplies, but it served as a place of
general "roll up," when the monotony of life in camp or on lonely farms
began to weigh upon those destined to lead the same.

Its situation was an open slope, fronting a rolling country, more or
less thickly grown with wild fig and mahobo-hobo, mimosa and feathery
acacia. Behind, some three or four hundred yards, rose a low ridge of
rocks, whose dull greyness was relieved by the vivid green of
sugar-bush. Strategically its position was bad, but this was a side to
which those who planted it there had not given a thought. The Maxims of
the Company's forces had done for the natives for ever and a day. There
was not a kick left in them.

The building was a fair-sized oblong one, constructed of the usual
wattle and "dagga" as to the walls, and with a high-pitched roof of
thatch. Internally it was divided into three compartments--a
sleeping-room, a living-room, and the store itself, the latter as large
as the two first put together. From end to end of this was a long
counter, about a third of which was partitioned off as a public bar.
Rows of shelves lined the walls, and every conceivable article seemed
represented--blankets and rugs; tinned food and candles; soap and
cheese; frying-pans and camp-kettles; cooking-pots and high boots;
straps and halters; Boer tobacco and Manila cheroots; all jostling each
other, down even to accordions and concertinas, seemed only to begin the
list of general "notions" which, either stacked on shelves or hanging
from the beam which ran along the building parallel with the spring of
the roof, filled every available space. Bags of mealies, too, and flour
stood against the further wall; and the shelves backing the bar
department were lined with a plentiful and varied assortment of bottles.

Not much less varied was the type of customer who was prone to sample
their contents. Miners working for a wage, independent prospectors,
transport