Basuto
village, the inhabitants of which welcomed our arrival with such extreme
cordiality that I felt sure they wanted something from us. And later
on, after I had dined, and was thinking of retiring for the night, my
suspicion was verified.

As is the custom when the natives are inclined to be friendly, the
headman of the village and some half-dozen others came out to fraternise
with my "boys", and, incidentally, to share their evening meal, which,
as usual, consisted to a large extent of buck meat. Now, at the time of
which I write, the Basutos possessed no firearms, therefore they had to
depend chiefly upon pitfalls and similar primitive contrivances for
their supply of meat, except upon the very rare occasions when they
succeeded in working themselves up to such a pitch of extravagance as to
slaughter an ox; consequently meals of which flesh formed a part were
few and far between. But they knew that the white man and his followers
could always get meat in abundance; therefore when a white man passed
through their country--which might occur, upon an average, twice a
year--they always made a point of inviting themselves to supper, as in
the present case, knowing that the white man, understanding their
custom, would be sure to provide the wherewithal for an abundant feast.
And as they eat they talked, for the Kafir is an inveterate gossip, and
in this way the white man might sometimes acquire an item or two of
information of real value to him.

Now, I had given my "boys" instructions to avail themselves to the
fullest extent of every opportunity that should offer to make cautious
enquiry among the natives with whom we might chance to come into
contact, with the object of gaining some clue to the whereabouts of Nell
Lestrange; for I knew that a white child could not be spirited off into
the wilds without a good many natives acquiring an inkling of the
direction in which she had gone: therefore upon occasions like the
present it was the custom of Piet, my after-rider, ably seconded by Jan,
cunningly to lead the conversation round to the subject of the recent
war, and then listen intently to all that was said, helping the
conversation along, where needful, by an artfully framed question or
two. And these tactics they followed on the evening in question.

Having taken a walk out on the veld to enjoy the beauty and silence of
the prospect under the silver flooding of the moon, I returned to the
wagon with a pleasan