stop his rushes, and the ridiculous rout of the thirty 

 Shangaans in every direction, abandoning their bag- 

 gage and fleeing from the little red enemy only just 

 visible in the grass as he hunted and harried them, 

 were too much for my principles and far too much 

 for my gravity. To be quite honest, I weakened 

 badly, and from that day on preferred to look another 

 way when Jock sallied out to inspect a gang of Shan- 

 gaans. Between them, Jim and Jock had beaten me. 



But the weakening brought its own punishment 

 and the joke was not far from making a tragedy. 

 Many times while lying some way off in the shade of 

 a tree or under another waggon I heard Jim, all 

 unconscious of my presence, call in a low deep voice, 

 almost a whisper, " Jock, Jock ; kaffirs ; Shangaans ! 3: 

 Jock's head was up in a moment, and a romp of some 

 sort followed unless I intervened. Afterwards, when 

 Jock was deaf, Jim used to reach out and pull his foot 

 or throw a handful of sand or a bunch of grass to rouse 

 him, and when Jock's head switched up Jim's big black 

 fist pointing to their common enemy was quite 

 enough. 



Jim had his faults, but getting others into mischief 

 while keeping out of it himself was not one of them. 

 If he egged Jock on, he was more than ready to stand 

 by him, and on these occasions his first act was to 

 jump for his sticks, which were always pretty handy, 

 and lie in readiness to take a hand if any of the gang 

 should use what he considered unfair means of defence, 

 such as throwing stones and kerries or using assegais 

 or knives ; and Jim the friend of Jock, the avoided 



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