ghed on his mind. Also there may have been more;
some subtle fore-knowledge of the approaching end to a life that, when
all allowances were made, could scarcely be called well spent. At any
rate he fidgeted at his window-place cursing beneath his breath, and
soon, as I saw out of the corner of my eye, began to have recourse
to his favourite bottle of peach brandy, which he fetched out of a
cupboard.

The slaves, too, were gloomy, as all natives are when suddenly awakened
in the night; but as the light grew they became more cheerful. It is a
poor Kaffir that does not love fighting, especially when he has a gun
and a white man or two to lead him.

Now that we had made such little preparations as we could, which, by the
way, I supplemented by causing some furniture to be piled up against
the front and back doors, there came a pause, which, speaking for my own
part--being, after all, only a lad at the time--I found very trying
to the nerves. There I stood at my window with the two guns, one a
double-barrel and one a single "roer", or elephant gun, that took
a tremendous charge, but both, be it remembered, flint locks; for,
although percussion caps had been introduced, we were a little behind
the times in Cradock. There, too, crouched on the ground beside me,
holding the ammunition ready for re-loading, her long, black hair
flowing about her shoulders, was Marie Marais, now a well-grown young
woman. In the intense silence she whispered to me:

"Why did you come here, Allan? You were safe yonder, and now you will
probably be killed."

"To try to save you," I answered simply. "What would you have had me
do?"

"To try to save me? Oh! that is good of you, but you should have thought
of yourself."

"Then I should still have thought of you, Marie."

"Why, Allan?"

"Because you are myself and more than myself. If anything happened to
you, what would my life be to me?"

"I don't quite understand, Allan," she replied, staring down at the
floor. "Tell me, what do you mean?"

"Mean, you silly girl," I said; "what can I mean, except that I love
you, which I thought you knew long ago."

"Oh!" she said; "_now_ I understand." Then she raised herself upon her
knees, and held up her face to me to kiss, adding, "There, that's my
answer, the first and perhaps the last. Thank you, Allan dear; I am glad
to have heard that, for you see one or both of us may die soon."

As she spoke the words, an assegai flashed through the window-