t a gun, a single-barrelled one, and seemed looking out for
game. Forgetting the risk I ran in my eagerness, and never thinking
whether he might not have a lot of Kaffirs with him, I said, `You're a
Kaffir spy and deserter; you come into Graham's Town with me.'

"`I'm a spy, am I?' said the fellow; `and who the d--l are you?'

"As he said this, I saw him cock his gun, which he still held at his
side, and bring the muzzle round towards me.

"`Turn your gun the other way,' I said, `or I'll fire!'

"`Fire, then!' said the Schelm [rascal], as he raised his gun and aimed
at me.

"The gun hung fire a little, I think, or quick as I was he'd have hit
me; but I jumped on one side behind a bush, and then back again, so as
not to give him a steady shot. Bang went the gun, and whiz went the
bullet I think it struck a branch, and thus turned; any way it missed
me. The fellow was off like a duiker [the duiker is a small, quick
antelope], but he'd an old hunter to deal with. I caught sight of him
as he jumped, and he never got up again when he came to the ground. I
didn't care to meddle with him, for I didn't know who might be near him.
I knew I'd saved a court-martial some trouble, and a file of soldiers
some ammunition, so I reported at Graham's Town what I had done. A
party went out at once, but they found the body stripped, and the man's
musket gone, and no one could identify him except the owner of the
store, and a Hottentot woman, who said he had been a soldier, but had
been supposed to have left the colony long ago. The Hottentots in the
house where I had seen him said he had come there to get a light to
light his pipe, and sat talking with them till it was dark. This might
or might not have been true, but he never fought against his white
countrymen again, nor did he sell any more ammunition. This long notch
is for him, and I think I did my duty to my fellow-men when I shot that
fellow, who would have murdered me if he could have shot quick enough,
as well as aid those rascally Kaffirs against us."

"I have always heard there were deserters from the English soldiers who
aided the Kaffirs in this outbreak," said Hans, "and it seems your man
was one of them."

"Yes, there were several deserters among the Kaffirs, but, as is usually
the case, they received very rough treatment at the hands of their new
friends, who, knowing that they dared not leave them or rejoin the
English, made them work like slaves."

"Do y