aim, that it had very nigh killed him.

He saw no more of the animal that night; but when we found Carruthers,
he was still lingering about the spot, persuaded that my child was
there. We watched the thicket all night, and at the very darkest hour,
judge of my trepidation when I heard the cries of a child in the
thicket, almost close by me, and well could distinguish that the cries
proceeded from the mouth of my own dear William. We all rushed
spontaneously into the thicket, and all towards the same point; but
found nothing. I cried on my boy's name, but all was again silent, and
we heard no more. He only uttered three cries, and then we all heard
distinctly that his crying was stopped by something stuffed into his
mouth. Before day, we heard some movement in the thicket, and though
heard by us all at the same time, each of us took it for one of our
companions moving about; and it was not till long after the sun was up,
that we at length discovered a bed up among the thick branches of a
tree, and not above twelve feet from the ground; but the occupants had
escaped, and no doubt remained but that they were now far beyond our
reach.

We then tried the dog, and by him we learned the way the fliers had
taken; but that was all, for as the day grew warm, he lost all traces
whatever. We searched over all the country for many days, but could find
no traces of my dear boy, either dead or alive; and at length were
obliged to return home weary and broken-hearted.

About three months after this sad calamity, one evening, on returning
home from my labour, my Agnes was missing, and neither her maid-servant,
nor one of all the settlers, could give the least account of her. My
suspicions fell instantly on the Kousi chief, Karoo, for I knew that he