, 1888-12-06
CHAPTER Ill

Something over n fortnight had passed
since the night when lost half q sovereign
aud found 81 ,2JO in looking for it, and in.
stead of that horTid hole, Tor which, after all,
El Dorado was scarcely missioner, very
different scene stretched away before US clad
in the silver robe of the moonlight. We were
eamped-Harry and l, two KafiTs, u Scotch
cart and SIX oXen-on the swelling side of
great wave of bush clad land Just where
we made our camp, however, the bush was
very sparse and only grew about in clumps,
while here and there were si2gle fat topped
mimosa trses. To our right little stream,
which had cut deep channel for itself in the
bosom Of the slope, flowed musically on be-
tween banks green with naidenhair, wild
asparagus and many beautiful grasses. The
bed rock here was red granite, and in the
course of centuries of patient washing the
water had followed ont Some of The hugo
slabs in its path into great troughs and ups,
and these we used for bathlng places. No
Roman lady, with her baths OF porphyry or
alabaster, could have had a more delicious
spot to lave herself than We had within fifty
yards of our skerm or rough inclosure OF
mimosa thorn that We had dragged together
round our cart to protect US from the attacks
of lions. There were several of these about,
as knew from their spoor, though we had
neither heard nor seen them.
sit was little nook where the eddy of the
stream had washed away q mass of soil, and
ON the edge OF it there grew q most beautiful
old mimosa thorn. Beneath the thorn was q
large smooth slab of granite fringed all
round with maidenhair and other ferns, that
sloped gently down TO pool of the clearest
sparkling water, which lay in bowl of
granite about ten feet wide by five feet deep
in the center. Here to this slab VIC went
every morning to bathe, and that delightful
bath is among the most pleasant of my hunt
ing "reminiscences, as it is also for reasons
that will presently appear among the most
painful.
SIT was lovely night and Harry and I
sat there to the windward of the fire, at
which the two Kafirs were busily employed
in cooking some impala steaks Off buck
which Harry, to his great joy, had shot that
morning, and were as perfectly contented
with ourselves and the world at large as two
people could possibly be. The night was beau.
tifui; it wouh require somebody with moro
words on the tip of their tongue than l have
to properly describe the chastened majesty Of
tIIUSo nIoonnL WIGS. Away forever anu lor-
ever, away to the mysterious north, rolled the
great bush ocean over which the silence
brooded There beneath us, milo or mora
to the right, ran the wide OEphant and
mirror like flashed back the moon, whose
silver spears were shivered ON its breast and
then tossed in twisted lines of light far
and wide aIout the mountains and the plain.
Down upon the river banks grew great TIM
Der trees that, through the stiffness, pointed
sOlemnly TO heaven, and the beauty of the
night lay upon them like cloud. Every
where was silence-silence i'll the starred
depths, silence on the fair bosom of the sleep
ing earth. Now, if ever, great thoughts
IN .;ht rise in a mans mind, and for n space
he might loose his iittleneSs in the sense that
be partooli of the pure immensity about him.
Almost might he seem to see the spirit of the
heavens, Eirdled round with stars, passing
down ia the dead quiet TO loot, now that the
night had covered up her sins, upon the sleep
lag face Of his lost bride, the earth. Alnsj
might he hear the echoes Of angelic voices, n:
the spirits poised on bent and rushing pinions
swept onward from universe to universe:
and distinguish the white fingers of the wind
playing i'll the tresses of the trees.
"Hark! what was thatF
"From far away down by the river there
comes mighty rolling sound, then another
and another. 1t is the lion seeking his meat.
81 saw Harry shiver and turn little pale.
He was plucky boy enough, but the roar OF
a lion for the first time in the solemn bush
veldt at night is apt to shake the nerves OF
any lad.
Lions, my boy | said; they are hunt
ing down by the river there; but l dol't
think that you need make yourself Uneasy.
We have been here three nights now and if
| they We're going to pay US a visit should
think that they would have done so before
this However, we will make up the fire.
"'Here, Pharaoh, do you and Jim-Jim get
some more wood before we so to sleep, else
the cats will be purring round before morn
ing
Pharaoh, a great brawny Swazi, who
had been working for me Mt Pilgrims Rest,
laughed, rose and stretched himself, and
then calling to Jim-Jim TO bring the ak
and a REIN, started off in the moonlight
toward clump of sugar bush, where we cut
our fnel from some dead trees. He wos .
fine fellow i'll his way, was Pharaoh, and
think that he had been named Pharaoh be-
cause he had an Egyptian cast of counten-
ance and royal sert OF swagger about hRn-
But his way was a somewhat peculiar way,
| on account of the uncertainty OF his temper,
and very few people could get on with him
also, if he could get it, he would drink Like
n fish, and when he drank he became shock
ingly bloodthirsty. These were his bad
points; his good ones were that, like most
people of the Zulu blood, he became exceed
ingly attached to one if he took to you at all
he was hard working and intelligent man,
and about as dare devil and pltrcky fellow
at q nineh as / have ever had to do with