the veld to hold parley with the routed enemy that 

 day. 



At the first mention of Sam's name Jim had twitched 

 round with a snort, but the humour of the situation 

 tickled him when he saw the too obvious reluctance 

 with which his rival received the honour conferred 

 on him. Between rough gusts of laughter Jim 

 rained on him crude ridicule and rude comments ; 

 and Sam slouched off with head bent, relieving his 

 heart with occasional clicks and low murmurs of disgust. 

 How far the new herald would have ventured, if he 

 had not received most unexpected encouragement, 

 is a matter for speculation. Jim's last shout was to 

 advise him not to hide in an ant-bear hole ; but, to 

 Sam's relief, the Shangaans seemed to view him 

 merely as a decoy, even more dangerous than I was ; 

 for, as no one else appeared, they had now no idea 

 at all from which quarter the expected attack would 

 come. They were widely scattered more than half 

 a mile away when Sam came in sight ; a brief pause 

 followed in which they looked anxiously around, and 

 then, after some aimless dashes about like a startled troop 

 of buck, they seemed to find the line of flight and headed 

 off in a long string down the valley towards the river. 



Now, no one had ever run away from Sam before, 

 and the exhilarating sight so encouraged him that 

 he marched boldly on after them. Goodness knows 

 when, if ever, they would have stopped, if Sam had 

 not met a couple of other natives whom the Shan- 

 gaans had passed and induced them to turn back 

 and reassure the fugitives. 



221 



Y, 



