A FALSE ALARM. 
197 
Towards sundown one day, while they were 
still absent, H. was getting up from a very bad 
attack of fever. Rolled in all the clothes lie had, 
he had just sunk into his chair, when a terrific 
shot startled us and the whole community. 
Shouts of iS Kaleobar ! ” resounded everywhere, 
and the villagers, every man with his arrows and 
javelins ready, ran swiftly to the barricades in 
wild excitement. It was like nothing but a dis- 
turbed ants’ nest. The post-holder’s wife came 
to our window and cried, “ Master ! master I 
come ! ” but master was already disburdened of 
his heavy clothing, and busy with rapid arrange- 
ments for defence. I called Kobez, but after- 
wards it was remarked that no one caught a 
glimpse of him during the alarm. I think he 
must have burrowed in the sand or climbed a 
tree, H. very highly praises my self-command on 
this occasion, but I am bound to confess that the 
latter resource would have been mine could I have 
scaled these smooth-stemmed trees, and could 1 
have had the heart to leave H,, so weak that he 
could scarcely stand. After one moment the 
feeling of fear passes, and the excitement of the 
emergency lifts one above any thought of self. 
It was only a scare from the accidental dis- 
charge of a late-returning villager’s gun : they 
