paper from his pocket. "Here,
you--read it! Careful now--do not let them see from the waggon."

The big flabby-faced man took the paper and, still bending down over the
horse's knee, read aloud:

"The two prisoners and their servant (an Englishman, an English girl,
and a Zulu Kafir) to be executed in pursuance of our decree, as your
commanding officer shall order, as enemies to the Republic. For so doing
this shall be your warrant."

"You see the signature," said Muller, "and you do not dispute it?"

"Yah, we see it, and we do not dispute it."

"Good. Give me back the warrant."

The man with the tooth was about to obey when his companion interposed.

"No," he said, "the warrant must remain with us. I do not like the job.
If it were only the man and the Kafir now--but the girl, the girl! If
we give you back the warrant, what shall we have to show for the deed of
blood? The warrant must remain with us."

"Yah, yah, he is right," said the Unicorn; "the warrant must remain with
us. Put it in your pocket, Jan."

"Curse you, give it me!" said Muller between his teeth.

"No, Frank Muller, no!" answered the Vilderbeeste, patting his pocket,
while the two or three square inches of skin round his nose wrinkled
up in a hairy grin that, owing to the cut on his head, was even more
curious than usual. "If you wish to have the warrant you shall have
it, but then we shall up-saddle and go, and you can do your murdering
yourself. There, there! take your choice; we shall be glad enough to
get home, for we do not care for the job. If I go out shooting I like to
shoot buck or Kafirs, not white people."

Frank Muller reflected a moment, then he laughed a little.

"You are funny folk, you home-bred Boers," he said; "but perhaps you are
right. After all, what does it matter who keeps the warrant, provided
that the thing is well done? Mind that there is no bungling, that is
all."

"Yah, yah," said the fat-faced man, "you can trust us for that. It
won't be the first that we have toppled over. If I have my warrant I ask
nothing better than to go on shooting Englishmen all night, one down
the other come on. I know no prettier sight than an Englishman toppling
over."

"Stop that talk and saddle up, the cart is waiting. You fools can never
understand the difference between killing when it is necessary to kill
and killing for killing's sake. These people must die because they have
betrayed the land."

"Yah, yah," said the Vilderbe