The People of the Mist

r. The daylight grew and gathered about him, the

chirrup, lizards ran from the crevices of the rocks, yonder the rain-washed bud of a mountain lily opened before his eyes. Still Leonard sat on, his face

Leonard lifted the rifle, aimed and fired. The report rang out clearly on the silent air, and was echoed from krantz and kloof and mountain side, and from above answered the thud of the bullet.

f life.” Then he turned to the body of his brother and made it ready for burial as best he might, closing the

used from his dreadful task

voice seemed to dull the edge of solitude —“the lazy hound

red the body with a red blanket to scare away the vultures, he started at a run round some projecting rocks that bordered the little plateau on which the hut had stood. Beyon

his cave or grotto it was their custom to make a fire for cooking. Bu

h a vigorous kick a prostrate form, of which he could just see the outline. The form did not move, which was strange, for such a kick should have suf

it is Cheat, a

poke from the corner of the ca

am tied: the Baas must l

back, his legs and arms bound firmly with rimpis of hide, his face and body a mass of contusions. Drawing his

f semi-starvation, and he had served them faithfully for some years. They had christened him Otter, his native patronymic being quit

four feet in height. But what he lacked in height he made up in breadth; it almost seemed as though, intended by nature to be a man of many inches, he had been compressed to his present dimensions by art. His vast chest and limbs, indicating strength ne

” said Leonard, als

guessed. They knew better than to tell me, for I would have beaten them — yes, all! So they waited till I was sound asleep, then came behind me, the three of them, and tied me fast that I should n

y masters, who always dug for yellow iron and found so little, being fools. Then they got together everything of value, yes, down to th

d forgotten that if my arms are strong, my head is stronger! Butting like a bull I caught him fair in the middle, and his back was against the side of the cave. He made one noise, no more; he will never make another noise, for my head smashed him up inside a

hat they left the gun and most of the other things. After that I fainted; it was silly, but those kerries of theirs are of rhinoceros horn — I should not have minded so much had they been of wood, but

; “Baas Tom is dead. He died at daybreak in my arms. The f

e battered countenance. “Wow,” he said, “is it so? Oh! my father, are you dead, you who were brave like a lion and gentle as a girl? Yes, you are dead, my ears have heard

nard; “I dare no

, for he was weak from his injuries. Presently they

ell, next time it will be the turn of the good ones.” Then he dr

of the sun you will be braver and better yet, and become more patient and not quarrel any more with those who are less clever than you. Chief and Father, I salute you! May he whom you named the Otter serve you and the Inkoosi your brother once more in the House of the Great–Great, if one so ugly and misshapen can enter there. As for the Basuto dog whom I slew an

ing washed his wounds, he set himself to the task

longer, but till then he would watch by him, keeping the last of many vigils. So all that remained of the Basuto Cheat having been dragged forth and thrust unceremoniously into an ant-bear hole by Otter, w

al, came into the cavern. They were short of meat, he said, and with the lea

o be back by sundown, as h

ig a hole, Baas?”

the others did. We will bury him in the last pit he made looking f

known. Wow! Who knows to what end he labours? But perchance it is a little near the donga. Twice

k half an hour before sundown at latest. Stop! Bring some

Otter, why does Baas Tom look so awful now that he is dead — he who was so gentle while yet he lived? Cheat did not look awful, only uglier. But then you killed Cheat, and the Heavens killed Baas Tom and set their own seal upon him. And what will Baas Leonard do now that h

tudes searching for gold with poor food and but little shelter. But men who seek their fortunes are not chary of hazarding their own lives of those of others. They become fatalists, not avowedly perhaps,

Tower muskets and a half-bred greyhound, they received a concession from the actual chief of that territory to dig up and possess the gold without let or hindrance from any person whatsoever, they did not postpone their undertaking because the country was fever-stricken and

ssful; indeed, wherever they dug they found “colour,” and once or twice stumbled upon pockets of nuggets. Their hopes ran high, but presently one of the four — Askew by name — s

ng Johnston’s death they found gold in very promising quantities, and his brother, whose desire to w

went out shooting, and losing his path in the bush was forced to spend a night in the fever-fog. A week afte

ankrupt of all love and hope. It was a fact that at this moment he had no friend in the wide world, unless he could call the knob-nosed native Otter a friend. He had been many years away from England, his

d by now, or more probably married to Mr. Cohen. And yet once they had loved each other, and to this hour he still loved her, or thought that he did. At least, through all the weary years of exile, labour, and unceasing search after the unattainable, her image and memory had been with him, a distant dream of sweetness, peace, and beauty

t for, and how could he extract it from the quartz without machinery or capital? Besides, his Kaffir servants had deserted him, worn out with hard work and fever, and there were no others to be had at this season. Well, it was only

d, he would keep the promise — till he died. And he remembered also that curious prophecy to which

had brought to shame and ruin. It was not wonderful in a man of his excitable temperament that at the hour of his death he should have grasped at some vision of attainment of the object of his life, though by the hand of another. And yet how strangely he had l

been his playmate, his brother, and his friend. From time to time he rose and walked about the cave.

wish that Otter would come back, so that we might get the f

ng more like a gnome than a man against the lurid background of the angry sky. A buck was tied acr

himself had dug by the gully, and the roll of the thunder was his requiem. It