Kendah."

Hans thought a moment and then very deliberately began to tear up the
draft; indeed I was only just in time to save it from destruction.

"If the Baas is going to turn me off because of this paper," he said, "I
will make it small and eat it."

"You silly old fool," I said as I possessed myself of the cheque.

Then the conversation was interrupted, for who should appear but Sammy,
my old cook, who began in his pompous language:

"The perfect rectitude of your conduct, Mr. Quatermain, moves me to the
deepest gratitude, though indeed I wish that I had put something into
the food of the knave Jacob who beguiled us all, that would have caused
him internal pangs of a severe if not of a dangerous order. My holding
in the gold mine was not extensive, but the unpaid bill of the said
Jacob and his friends----"

Here I cut him short and fled, since I saw yet another shareholder
galloping to the gate, and behind him two more in a spider. First I took
refuge in my room, my idea being to put away that pile of letters. In so
doing I observed that there was one still unopened. Half mechanically
I took it from the envelope and glanced at its contents. They were
word for word identical with those of that addressed to "Mr. Hans,
Hottentot," only my name was at the bottom of it instead of that of Hans
and the cheque was for £1,500, the amount I had paid for the shares I
held in the venture.