had brought with him, which seems to have included a bottle of peach
brandy that induced slumber.

Waking up towards evening, he found that his horse had gone, and at once
jumped to the conclusion that it had been stolen by Kaffirs, although in
truth the animal had but strolled over a ridge in search of grass.
Running hither and thither to seek it, he presently crossed this ridge
and met the horse, apparently being led away by two of the Red Kaffirs,
who, as was usual, were armed with assegais. As a matter of fact these
men had found the beast, and, knowing well to whom it belonged, were
seeking its owner, whom, earlier in the day, they had seen upon the
hills, in order to restore it to him. This, however, never occurred to
the mind of Monsieur Leblanc, excited as it was by the fumes of the
peach brandy.

Lifting the double-barrelled gun he carried, he fired at the first
Kaffir, a young man who chanced to be the eldest son and heir of the
chief of the tribe, and, as the range was very close, shot him dead.
Thereon his companion, leaving go of the horse, ran for his life. At
him Leblanc fired also, wounding him slightly in the thigh, but no more,
so that he escaped to tell the tale of what he and every other native
for miles round considered a wanton and premeditated murder. The deed
done, the fiery old Frenchman mounted his nag and rode quietly home. On
the road, however, as the peach brandy evaporated from his brain, doubts
entered it, with the result that he determined to say nothing of his
adventure to Henri Marais, who he knew was particularly anxious to avoid
any cause of quarrel with the Kaffirs.

So he kept his own counsel and went to bed. Before he was up next
morning the Heer Marais, suspecting neither trouble nor danger, had