his eyes fixed on the ground, while the hot sun blazed on his shoulders,
walked a man.

Three or four fires were burning about the camp in different parts, three
cooking the mealies and rice which formed the diet of the men, their stock
of tinned meats having been exhausted; while the fourth, which was watched
by a native boy, contained the more appetising meal of the Captain.

Most of the men were out of camp; the coloured boys having gone to fetch
the mules, which had been discovered in the hills a few miles off, and were
expected to arrive in the evening; and the white men had gone out to see
what game they could bring down with their guns to flavour the mealie pots,
or to reconnoitre the country; though all native habitations had been
destroyed within a radius of thirty miles, and the land was as bare of
black men as a child's hand of hair; and even the beasts seemed to have
vanished.

In the shade of the tent, formed of the canvas across two posts, lay three
white men, whose work it was to watch the pots and guard the camp. They
were all three Colonial Englishmen, and lay on the ground on their
stomachs, passing the time by carrying on a desultory conversation, or
taking a few whiffs, slowly, and with care, from their pipes, for tobacco
was precious in the camp.

Under some bushes a few yards off lay a huge trooper, whose nationality was
uncertain, but who was held to hail from some part of the British Isles,
and who had travelled round the world. He was currently reported to have
done three years' labour for attempted rape in Australia, but nothing
certain was known regarding his antecedents. He had been up on guard half
the night, and was now taking his rest lying on his back with his arm