There is a rumour that he was an enemy of
Jumbo's, and that our cowardly scoundrel made this offer in order to
have an opportunity of killing him in a quiet way. Hicks even goes the
length of saying he is sure that Jumbo killed him, for when he saw the
sick man last he was under the impression what he had got the turn, and
gave him a powder that would have been certain to cure--"

"Or kill," interrupted Tom Brown; "I've no faith in Hicks's skill as a
practitioner."

"Of course not," said Wilkins, "proverbial philosophy asserts and
requires that doctors should disagree."

"Be that as it may," continued Pearson, "the native did die and was
buried, so that's an end of him, and yonder sits Jumbo eating his
breakfast at the camp-fire as if he had done a most virtuous action.
The fact is, I don't believe the reports. I cannot believe that poor
Jumbo, coward though he is, would be guilty of such an act."

"Perhaps not," said the major, rising, "but there's no possibility of
settling the question now, and here comes Hicks, so I'll go and make
arrangements with him about the day's proceedings."

"They have a primitive mode of conducting funerals here," said Tom Brown
when the major had left. "I happened to be up at the kraal currying
favour with the chief man, for he has the power of bothering us a good
deal if he chooses, and I observed what they did with this same dead
man. I saw that he was very low as I passed the hut where he lay, and
stopped to look on. His breath was very short, and presently he fell
into what either might have been a profound sleep, or a swoon, or death;
I could not be quite sure which, not being used to black fellows. I
would have examined the poor man, but the friends kicked up a great row
and shoved me off. Before the breath could have been well out of his
body, they hoisted him up and carried him away to burial. I followed
out of mere curiosity, and found that the lazy rascals had shoved the
body into an ant-eater's hole in order to save the trouble of digging a
grave."

While Tom and his friends were thus conversing over their pipes, their
attention was attracted by a peculiar cry or howl of terror, such as
they had never heard from any animal of those regions. Starting up they
instinctively grasped their guns and looked about them. The utterer of
the cry was soon obvious in the person of Jumbo, who had leaped up
suddenly--overturning his breakfast in the act--and stood gazing befo