"

"If it were walking only, Katie, it would not be much; but it may be we
should have to run, and that at a greater speed than a Matabili could
follow; that is why I fear."

"Well, leave us here, and you go on, and bring us back help. The
`_Mensch_' will soon come to us, and we could stop here till they
arrive."

"We live or die together, Katie; I will never leave you here," exclaimed
Hans. "But there is something to be thought of, though. Victor and
Bernhard, let me tell you my plan."

The two men turned from the horses, whose pitiable condition they had
been contemplating, to Hans, and waited for his words. After a moment's
thought, Hans exclaimed, "It is our best chance, and it will succeed.
This is the plan:--The black horse is as yet well. You Bernhard, or you
Victor, as you may choose, upsaddle at once, and ride for our lager. As
soon as you reach it, tell Maritz, or any one who is our friend, of our
being left in the desert. I have horses among the people, and there are
those who will help us. Come back with help and with horses, and we
will get safe again among our people."

"And where will you be, Hans?" was Victor's inquiry.

"I," said Hans, "will move on to that range of hills; there are kloofs
and rocks there amidst which I can easily find a place of security for
Katie and her sister; for the rest trust a hunter. They shall neither
starve nor be made prisoners whilst I live. So now, which of you will
go? it is the post of danger to go as much as to remain. You, Bernhard,
are the lightest man, and ought thus to ride fastest. In six days you
should be back, and by that time we shall be accustomed to a rough
life."

"If Victor agrees to this, I will go," said Bernhard; "and the sooner I
go the better: first, though, shall we shoot the lion that killed the
Kaffir? otherwise he might be an unpleasant neighbour to you, as he has
tasted human flesh."

"We had better let him stand," said Hans: "a shot fired here now might
be heard on this still day twenty miles. We need not tell every pair of
ears within twenty miles that white men are about, for then, perhaps, we
might have curious eyes coming to look at us; besides, the lion may be
useful to us again."

"How?" exclaimed the two hunters; "not in killing another Matabili?"

"No," said Hans; "but the sooner our horses are eaten the better. The
vultures will be streaming in this direction very shortly, and as long
as a scrap of flesh is on