374 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



behind, alone followed him ; the white servant 

 woman, and the remaining two Hottentots stayed 

 in the kitchen, half dead with fright, the one on a 

 chair, her apron clasped to her head and ears, 

 the others huddled up in a corner. The three 

 adventurers were not long in reaching the kraal, 

 whence they heard the same dreadful cries "and 

 shrieks proceeding, mingled with the trampling of 

 feet. Goodrick first approached the entrance, which 

 he found burst open. The sight that met his eyes, 

 and those of his wife and Cupido, close behind, was 

 enough to have shaken the stoutest heart. 



Under the clear illumination of the moon, which 

 now shone forth calm and serene, the enclosure 

 seemed as light as day. In the far corner, to the 

 right-hand, seventy paces distant, the half-dozen 

 horses, that had been turned in, stood huddled with 

 their heads together like a flock of sheep. On the 

 opposite side, from the entrance, a frightful-looking 

 ■group was tearing madly round. First ran a tall, 

 stout figure, clad in the broad-brimmed hat and 

 quaint old-fashioned leathern costume, which 

 Goodrick in a moment recognised. In its hands 

 it grasped a' huge, long, old flint " roer," a smooth- 

 bore elephant gun, such as the Boers used in 

 earlier days. The figure, as it fled, had its face 

 half-turned to its pursuers, who consisted of six 

 half-naked Hottentots armed with assegais and 

 knives. As the chase, for such it was, swept round 

 the kraal and the figures approached the entrance, 

 every face could be plainly discerned ; and this was 

 the horrible part of it. These faces were all the 

 faces of the dead, gaunt, ghastly, and grim, and yet 

 possessed of such fiendish and dreadful expressions 



