self, "tell me what was that new name which
the Zulu captain Mavovo gave you before he died, I mean after you had
fired Beza-Town and caught Hassan and his slavers in their own trap?"

Hans, who had suddenly found something that interested him extremely
out at sea, perhaps because he did not wish to witness my grief, turned
round slowly and answered:

"Mavovo named me Light-in-Darkness, and by that name the Kafirs know me
now, Baas, though some of them call me Lord-of-the-Fire."

"Then Mavovo named you well, for indeed, Hans, you shine like a light in
the darkness of my heart. I whom you think wise am but a fool, Hans, who
has been tricked by a _vernuker_, a common cheat, and he has tricked you
and Sammy as well. But as he has shown me that man can be very vile, you
have shown me that he can be very noble; and, setting the one against
the other, my spirit that was in the dust rises up once more like a
withered flower after rain. Light-in-Darkness, although if I had ten
thousand pounds I could never pay you back--since what you have given
me is more than all the gold in the world and all the land and all the
cattle--yet with honour and with love I will try to pay you," and I held
out my hand to him.

He took it and pressed it against his wrinkled old forehead, then
answered:

"Talk no more of that, Baas, for it makes me sad, who am so happy. How
often have you forgiven me when I have done wrong? How often have you
not flogged me when I should have been flogged for being drunk and other
things--yes, even when once I stole some of your powder and sold it to
buy square-face gin, though it is true I knew it was bad powder, not fit
for you to use? Did I thank you then overmuch? Why therefore should you
thank me who have done but a little thing, not really to help you but
because, as you know, I love gambling, and was told that this bit of
paper would soon be worth much more than I gave for it. If it had proved
so, should I have given you that money? No, I should have kept it myself
and bought a bigger farm and more cattle."

"Hans," I said sternly, "if you lie so hard, you will certainly go to
hell, as the Predikant, my father, often told you."

"Not if I lie for you, Baas, or if I do it doesn't matter, except that
then we should be separated by the big kloof written of in the Book,
especially as there I should meet the Baas Jacob, as I very much want to
do for a reason of my own."

Not wishing to pursue this somewha