iate with him much in the
future. Here! Hi! Olebo, stop!"

The young man drew rein, and the black looked up enquiringly.

"Lie down and listen for the Boers!"

The Kaffir nodded, and trotted a dozen yards away from the side of the
ponies, threw himself down, listened, jumped up, and repeated the
performance three times at greater distances before returning.

"No hear!" he said. "Gone other way."

"It would be safe then to strike a match and look at the compass,"
suggested West, and, taking out his box, he struck a light, shaded it in
his slouch hat, and then held the little pocket compass to it.

"Well, which way are we going?"

"Due east."

"Then we'll turn due north, and travel that way till to-morrow night,
and see what that brings forth."

Starting off again, they journeyed on, sometimes at a walk, sometimes at
an easy canter, so as to save the horses as much as possible, while the
Kaffir kept up, seeming not in the slightest degree distressed, but
ready to enter into conversation at any time, after changing from one
side to the other so as to hold on by a different hand.

"Soon be daylight now," said West; "but I hope this fellow does not
expect to keep on with us, does he?"

"Oh no, I don't think so for a moment. We'll pull up before sunrise at
some sheltered place and have a good look-out for danger before letting
the ponies graze and having breakfast. Let's see what happens then!"

But the sun was well up before a suitable kopje came in sight, one so
small that it did not appear likely to contain enemies, but sufficiently
elevated to give an observer a good view for miles through the clear
veldt air.

"Looks safe!" said Ingleborough; "but burnt English children fear the
Boer fire. Let's have a good circle round."

This was begun, and the black instantly grasped what was intended, and
hanging well down from West's stirrup-leather, he began to search the
ground carefully for tracks, looking up from time to time and pointing
out those of antelopes, lions, and ostriches, but never the hoof of
horse or the footprint of man.

"No Boer there!" he said. "No one come. Good water," he continued,
pointing to the slight tracts of grass which had sprung up where a
stream rising among the rocks was losing itself in the dry soil, but
which looked brighter and greener as it was nearer to the kopje, which
was fairly furnished with thorn-bush and decent-sized trees.

"Any Boers hiding there?" said Wes