and obviously the result of
years of patient collecting. In the corners again were sticks, kerries,
and two assegais, a number of queer-shaped stones and bones, handles of
broken table-knives, bits of the locks of guns, portions of an American
clock, and various other articles which this human jackdaw had picked
up and hidden away. Altogether it was a strange place: and vaguely it
occurred to Jess, as she sank back upon the dirty skins, that, had it
not been for the old clothes and the wreck of the American clock, she
would have made acquaintance with a very fair example of the dwellings
of primeval man.

"Stop before you begin," she said. "Have you anything to eat here? I am
nearly starving."

Jantje grinned knowingly, and, grubbing in a heap of rubbish in the
corner, drew out a gourd with a piece of flat sheet iron, which once had
formed the back plate of a stove, placed on the top of it. It contained
"maas," or curdled buttermilk, which a woman had brought him that very
morning from a neighbouring kraal, and it was destined for Jantje's own
supper. Hungry as he was himself, for he had tasted no food all day, he
gave it to Jess without a moment's hesitation, together with a wooden
spoon, and, squatting on the rock before her, watched her eat it with
guttural exclamations of satisfaction. Not knowing that she was robbing
a hungry man, Jess ate the maas to the last spoonful, and was grateful
to feel the sensation of gnawing sickness leave her.

"Now," she said, "tell me what you mean."

Thereon Jantje began at the beginning and related the events of the day
so far as he was acquainted with them. When he came to where the old
man was dragged, with kicks and blows and ignominy, from his own
house, Jess's eyes flashed, and she positively ground her teeth with
indignation; and as for her feelings when she learnt that he was
condemned to death and to be shot at dawn on the morrow, they are simply
indescribable. Of the Bessie complication Jantje was quite ignorant, and
could only tell her that Frank Muller had an interview with her sister
in the little plantation, after which she was shut up in the store-room,
where she still remained. But this was quite enough for Jess, who knew
Muller's character better, perhaps, than anybody else, and was not by
any means ignorant of his designs upon Bessie. A few moments' thought
put the key of the matter into her hand. She saw now what was the
reason of the granting of the pass, and