324 A HOTTENTOT PATRIOT. 



horses for any unexpected emergency that might 

 occur, and thus to place as much distance between 

 them and the intended scene of their atrocity, as 

 to make it look impossible for them to have been 

 the perpetrators. 



Silently we rejoined our horses, directed their 

 steps more to the eastward up a rocky defile, on to 

 a table-land that in daylight must have overlooked 

 the country for miles. Here our guide uttered a 

 long whistle in imitation of the red-legged plover, 

 which soon was answered, and immediately after- 

 wards Cigar was by my side. 



As may be imagined, he had plenty to tell. The 

 party so interested in me had arrived several hours 

 before, by the usual waggon route. They had 

 partaken of their suppers, knee-haltered their 

 horses, and were now sleeping, conscious that they 

 had matured a splendid plot, which scarcely could 

 fail, and that they would be enriched by it to the 

 tune of two first-class horses, rifles, saddlery, &c, 

 with a considerable round sum in gold ; all this, 

 mind you, to become theirs for the firing of a well- 

 directed bullet — a mere trifle to such characters — 

 nothing more. 



The horses and my servant were despatched to 

 a distant ravine where mealies in abundance awaited 

 them, while Cigar and myself kept watch over the 

 freebooters, who were only a few hundred yards 

 beneath us. How the old fellow regretted that we 



