once he stopped to listen; but
I was as cute as he was, and dropped on the ground immediately he
stopped, so that he could not see me, and then on we went again. As it
got darker, I followed by the sound, and kept rather closer; but this
wasn't very safe work, for if he had liked he might just have waited
behind a bush till I came up, and then shot me or stabbed me; but I was
very careful, and as long as he kept to the open country I felt I was a
match for him. After a while, though, he struck into the bush, and took
a narrow path, and then I thought it wouldn't do to follow him, for he
would be sure to hear me if I kept close enough to hear him; so I
reluctantly gave up, but I had seen enough to make me suspicious.

"I now thought of returning, and should have done so at once, but
determined now I was so far off to wait a bit, and see what might
happen; so taking shelter under a bush, I sat down on watch. I hadn't
sat long before I saw a gleam of fire away in the bush towards where the
man had gone, and this shone out pretty clearly. `That's your
camping-ground, my man,' I said, `and I'll have a trial to find out what
your company is.' I determined to creep up near enough to this fire to
see what was going on, and started at once. I had to walk a good mile
before I came near the fire, and then I crawled along on all fours till
I got a view of the fire. I was sorry for myself when I found where I
was, for I saw nearly fifty Kaffirs, some of them wounded, and all of
them armed with assagies or muskets, and with them was the man I'd seen
in the town. He was giving the chief Kaffir some powder, and seemed
well-known among them. I think I could have shot the fellow from where
I was, but I knew I should be assagied to a certainty if I did; so
marking all I saw, I crawled back again, and off I went to Graham's
Town.

"The next day I went to the store-man, and told him what I had seen.

"`If that blackguard comes here again, then,' said the man, `I'll have
him taken, and it's death to sell ammunition to the Kaffirs.'

"`He fought against us, too,' said I; `that I can swear to.'

"`He must be a deserter from some regiment,' said the store-man, `for he
is just like a soldier in all his ways.'

"Two or three weeks after this I was out looking about Graham's Town for
some pouw [a bustard], for they came there sometimes, when, in a bush
path, who should I see just coming close to me but the deserter and spy!
He'd go