first saw you;--you aren't dressed as most of us dress, you know. But the
minute the fire shone on your face I said, 'It's all right.' Curious,
isn't it?" said Peter. "I don't know you from Adam, but if you were to
take up my gun and point it at me, I wouldn't move! I'd lie down here and
go to sleep with my head at your feet; curious, isn't it, when I don't know
you from Adam? My name's Peter Halket. What's yours?"

But the stranger was arranging the logs on the fire. The flames shot up
bright and high, and almost hid him from Peter Halket's view.

"By gad! how they burn when you arrange them!" said Peter.

They sat quiet in the blaze for a while.

Then Peter said, "Did you see any niggers about yesterday? I haven't come
across any in this part."

"There is," said the stranger, raising himself, "an old woman in a cave
over yonder, and there is one man in the bush, ten miles from this spot.
He has lived there six weeks, since you destroyed the kraal, living on
roots or herbs. He was wounded in the thigh, and left for dead. He is
waiting till you have all left this part of the country that he may set out
to follow his own people. His leg is not yet so strong that he may walk
fast."

"Did you speak to him?" said Peter.

"I took him down to the water where a large pool was. The bank was too
high for the man to descend alone."