A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 197 



Here he had lingered for many years, alone and 

 isolated. His only fear had been, as he grew older 

 and feebler, the leopards infesting the neighbouring 

 mountains. Against their attacks had he built the 

 strong thorn fence, carefully closed at night, and 

 the door of thorns, which he wedged tightly into the 

 entrance-way. 



"A strange meeting indeed it was, but after all 

 not stranger than many things that happen in the 

 busy world. So far as I could learn from Klaas, 

 who himself was between forty and fifty, the ancient 

 figure before us was laden with the burden of more 

 than ninety years. Think of it ! Ninety summers 

 of parched Bushmanland, of burning Orange River 

 mountains ; ninety seasons of hunger and thirst 

 and dire privation ; great part of the earlier period 

 varied by raids on the flocks of the Boers, and 

 battles for existence with the wild beasts of the 

 land! 



"After nearly an hour's incessant chatter, during 

 which I believe Klaas had laid before his monkey- 

 like ancestor an epitomized history of his life, he 

 told the old man we wished to get through the 

 mountain, and that he had lost the tunnel of which 

 he had known as a boy. 'Ariseep, who it seems, 

 in the years he had been there, had explored every 

 nook and cranny of the valley, knew at once what 

 he meant, and quickly pointed out to us, not a 

 hundred paces away, a dense and prickly mass of 

 cactus and euphorbia bush ; here, after half an 

 hour's hewing and slashing with our hunting knives, 

 we managed to open a pathway, and at last a 

 cave-like opening in the mountain, about seven 

 feet in diameter, lay before us. Grandfather 



