Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-01-20

NeSp"u oA 1ne people when they learned that we were going to leave them was something quite pitiable. could only console them by declaring that we were but on journey, and would return the following year.
 "They had lived in the shadow of ..her father, who was dead" they declared; lever since they were little they had lived in his shadow. He had received them when they were outcasts and wan derers, without mat to lie on or a blan- ket to cover them, and they had grown fat in his shadow. Then he had died, and the Star, their fathers daughter, had married me, Macumazahn, and they had believed that l should take their fathers place and let them live in my shadow. What should they do when there was no one to protect them? The tribes were kept from attacking them by fear of the white man. If he went they would be eaten up," and so on. i Alas! there was but too much founda- tion for their fears.
 I returned to the huts at midday to get some dinner. Stella said that she was going to pack during the afternoon, so did not think it necessary to caution her about going out alone, as did not wishs to allude to the subject of Hendrika and the balloons unless I was obliged to. I told her, however, that would come back to help her as soon as I could get away. Then went down to the native kraals to sort out such cattle as belonged to MT. Carson from those which belonged | to the Kaffirs, for I proposed to take them with us It was large herd, and the business took an incalculable time. At length, a little before sundown, I gave it up, and leaving Indaba-zimbi to finish the job, got my horse and rode homewards.
 Arriving, I gave the horse to one of the stable boys, and went into the cen tral hut. There was no sign of Stella. though the things she had been packing lay about the floor. I passed first into our sleeping hut, thence one by ono into all the others, but still saw no sign of her. Then I went out, and calling Kaff1r in the garden, asked him if he had seen his mistress.
 He answered: Yes" He had seen her carrying flowers, walking towards the graveyard, holding the little white girl-my daughter-as he called her, by the hand, when the sun stood ''there," and he pointed to a spot in the horizon where it would have been about an hour and half before. ''The two dogs were with them" he added. I turned and ran towards the graveyard which was about a quarter of mile from the huts. Of course there was no reason to be anx- ious-evidently she had gone to lay the flowers on her fathers grave. And yet was anxious
 When got near the graveyard I met one of the natives, who, by my orders, had been set round the kraals to watch the place, and noticed that he was rub ping his eyes and yawning. Clearly he had been asleep. l asked him if he had seen his mistress, and he answered that he had not, which, under the circum- stances, was not wonderful. Without stopping to reproach him, I ordered the man to follow me, and went to the graveyard. There, on MT. Carson's grave, lay the dropping flowers which Stella had been carrying, and there in the fresh mold was the spoor of Tota's veldschoon, or hide slipper. But where were they?
 ran from tho graveyard and called aloud at the top of my voice, but no an- swer came. Meanwhile the native was more profitably engaged in tracing their
 
 yards till he came to clump of r1imosa bush that was situated between the stream and the ancient marble quarries just above the waterfall and at the | mouth of the ravine. Here he stopped, | and heard him give a startled cry. I | rushed to the spot, passed through the l trees and saw this. The little open space in the center of tho glade had been the scene of struggle. There in the soft earth, were the marks of three human feet-two shod, one naked Stella's, Tota's and Hendriha's Nor was this all. There, close by, lay the frag- ments of the two dogs-they were nothing more-and one baboon, not vet quite dead, which had been bitten in the throat by the dogs. All around us was the spoor of mum berless baboons. The full horror of what had happened flashed into my mind.
 My wife and Tota had been carried off by the balloons. As yet they h:A not been killed, for, if so, their remains would have been found with those of the dogs. They had been carried off, The brutes, acting under the direction of the Hendrika, had dragged N \ zH&,& aS