The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-11-29


 eyes and white face.
 < told you, mis-" i" said Wood, "that meinheer had probably left a million triRes behind-which site p,-S ''o"
 "I didn't understand you until father woke me to say good-by. Alter that the hint was only too intelligible, and I wandered about thinking. Did you scout the road toward the laager, MT. Aibertyne9 Don't you think it possible the kafars may have vanished in that direction 2'
 Everything is possible--almost. But no body of men has crossed the river within the last few days, for examined the mud carefully. Two footsteps only are to be seen, and they point both ways. The six men with your father will be enough to frighten any casual blacks"
 "Yes, ! suppose so. You arc very good to me" She served them and ate little. After a time, Many Batlapins they?"
 .Yes. We are among the semi-civil- fred lot here"
 " If those two men whose footsteps you saw crossed after the farmer had gone. is it likely they could read this note ?"
 ".Well, it is not impossible, but you are supposing good deal"
 " A woman is allowed to suppose. If, then, they read the note and returned, the blacks must know we are coming, and IS 1t not strange they should have van- ished p
 Not strange at all. The ways of a Kafhr are not ours. Though he is guided by the same rules as we, he is controlled by circumstances, superstitions, alliances. jealousies, and what not, which we no nothing of and we could not estimate the force of them if we knew. The only sound tactic in campaigning with Kafhrs is to look out for the unex- pected, and to be always ready"
 "Mr. Albertyne, l am haunted by pre- sentiments-"
 "Call them Aeas, Miss Bellr' Wood roared.
 !" Now want to ask you another aues- ton. Can Kaffirs swim?"
 Not all, but very many can."
 Is it impossible that the main body swam across? How far is the next ford ?n
 About twenty miles up, believe, and thither probably the Kafirs have marched to meet the Transvaal party. If they wished to cross here, why should they not use the ford?"
 Suppose the two scouts told them that our party was approaching, and they resolved to plant an ambush in the road to the laager; would they not be shrewd enough to avoid leaving traces of their passage2"
 Your suppositions are these, Miss Bell: the footprints in the mud were not left by harmless travellers, but by scouts. The scouts crossed, not before Duplatz left that note on the table, but afterward. They could read Dutch. The main force, warned by them, observed that the traces of its passage would be seen, and they swam over. This may De ali truth, but there is not a single fact, l think, to hang 1t on. To relieve your mind, how ever, l will take few men and ride down the bank"
 "Oh, thank you! Of course it is silly, but shall be so much easier when my fancies are disproved."
 Within an hour Albertyne came back full gallop, care in his face. Miss Bell was watching. C knew it 1" she cried. sissppi seissspinSg E her hands. "oh, my poor
 "You are making luxury of terrers," said he sternly. "A certain force of Kaffrs has swum over apparently five or six miles below; but it was two days since at least, and there is not the slight est reason to think that they went toward the hager. Their tracks follow the stream"
 Miss Bell showed no signs of comfort. "You are going to inspan and follow5" she asked feverishly.
 "Yes. Pray get into your wagon"
 It was II o'clock when the troop got under way. Said 'one man to another. ".This is fools errand we're on, com rade, look at it how you will. If old Yates has got catched, he's dead, and if he aint he's in laager, and what geod can we do anyway"
 "The blooming laager can take jolly good care of itself, and so could we at Zuurfontein. But with them wagons in tow we sha'n't reach Stockenstrom till hours after dark. There Eas all of five thousand Ksffirs crossed the Harte, Ian says, as seed the tracks"
 "A chap in love is never strategist, specially when he's got his girl in camp. Ye see, Ally's bound to look after her old father, and there ain't enough of us to leave a garrison at depot. So here we are on the hop in an unknown country, just inviting the enemy to tread on the tails of our coats. For why? Because our captains in love 1"
 Bless the women in their proper places, but dom them when they get into campI There1l be wigs in the green tonight, bet" Bell. overheard this conversation and others like it. But half the distance had been tra- versed when the adva ce party came racing back. Naked white bodies they saw ahead, lying on the veldt Albertyne arrayed his party for defence, and rode out alone Three corpses lay there one of them had been Yates. At this point two deep sluits, food-channels, ap- preached each other; Albertyne saw the banks torn down in rush of naked feet. There the ambush had heeo laid and