he dreadful sickness, valuable and docile animals which were trained to
shooting.

At our start a little contretemps occurred. To my amazement I saw
Savage, who insisted upon continuing to wear his funereal upper
servant's cut-away coat, engaged with grim determination in mounting his
steed from the wrong side. He got into the saddle somehow, but there
was worse to follow. The horse, astonished at such treatment, bolted
a little way, Savage sawing at its mouth. Lord Ragnall and I cantered
after it past the wagons, fearing disaster. All of a sudden it swerved
violently and Savage flew into the air, landing heavily in a sitting
posture.

"Poor Beans!" ejaculated Lord Ragnall as we sped forward. "I expect
there is an end of his journeyings."

To our surprise, however, we saw him leap from the ground with the most
marvellous agility and begin to dance about slapping at his posterior
parts and shouting,

"Take it off! Kill it!"

A few seconds later we discovered the reason. The horse had shied at
a sleeping puff adder which was curled up in the sand of that little
frequented road, and on this puff adder Savage had descended with
so much force, for he weighed thirteen stone, that the creature was
squashed quite flat and never stirred again. This, however, he did not
notice in his agitation, being convinced indeed that it was hanging to
him behind like a bulldog.

"Snakes! my lord," he exclaimed, when at last after careful search we
demonstrated to him that the adder had died before it could come into
action.

"I hate 'em, my lord, and they haunts" (he said 'aunts) "me. If ever
I get out of this I'll go and live in Ireland, my lord, where they
say there ain't none. But it isn't likely that I shall," he added
mournfully, "for the omen is horrid."

"On the contrary," I answered, "it is splendid, for you have killed the
snake and not the snake you. 'The dog it was that died,' Savage."

After this the Kafirs gave Savage a second very long name which meant
"He-who-sits-down-on-snakes-and-makes-them-flat." Having remounted him
on his horse, which was standing patiently a few yards away, at
length we got off. I lingered a minute behind the others to give some
directions to my old Griqua gardener, Jack, who snivelled at parting
with me, and to take a last look at my little home. Alack! I feared it
might be the last indeed, knowing as I did that this was a dangerous
enterprise upon which I found myself embarked, I who had v