e, undid his knee halter,
and saddled up. As I was doing so a thought struck me, and I told
Indaba-zimbi to run to the laager and see if he could find my
double-barrelled gun and some powder and shot, for I had only my
elephant "roer" and a few charges of powder and ball with me.

He went, and while he was away, poor little Tota came to herself and
began to cry, till she saw my face.

"Ah, I have had such a bad dream," she said, in Dutch: "I dreamed that
the black Kaffirs were going to kill me. Where is my papa?"

I winced at the question. "Your papa has gone on a journey, dear," I
said, "and left me to look after you. We shall find him one day. You
don't mind going with Heer Allan, do you?"

"No," she said, a little doubtfully, and began to cry again. Presently
she remembered that she was thirsty, and asked for water. I led her to
the river and she drank. "Why is my hand red, Heer Allan?" she asked,
pointing to the smear of Bombyane's blood-stained fingers.

At this moment I felt very glad that I had killed Bombyane.

"It is only paint, dear," I said; "see, we will wash it and your face."

As I was doing this, Indaba-zimbi returned. The guns were all gone;
he said the Zulus had taken them and the powder. But he had found some
things and brought them in a sack. There was a thick blanket, about
twenty pounds weight of biltong or sun-dried meat, a few double-handfuls
of biscuits, two water-bottles, a tin pannikin, some matches and
sundries.

"And now, Macumazahn," he said, "we had best be going, for those
Umtetwas are coming back. I saw one of them on the brow of the rise."

That was enough for me. I lifted little Tota on to the bow of my saddle,
climbed into it, and rode off, holding her in front of me. Indaba-zimbi
slipped a reim into the mouth of the best of the Boer horses, threw
of the sack of sundries on to its back and mounted also, holding the
elephant gun in his hand. We went eight or nine hundred yards in silence
till we were quite out of range of sight from the waggons, which were
in a hollow. Then I pulled up, with such a feeling of thankfulness in
my heart as cannot be told in words; for now I knew that, mounted as
we were, those black demons could never catch us. But where were we to
steer for? I put the question to Indaba-zimbi, asking him if he thought
that we had better try and follow the oxen which we had sent away with
the Kaffirs and women on the preceding night. He shook his head.

"The Umt