The record-union., 1897-08-23

Now near Abea's ruined house there
was a little hill, 100 or 200 feet high
one of the few in the Free State
rocky, ush-grown, and fiat-topped.
This hill sloped gradually upwards, till,
within ten feet of the top. a clear cap
of rock rose up almost as straight as
a wall In some places it was accessl-
Bile. in others not On the top it was
as fat as if it had formerly been
peak and was now sawed off. On the
slope Of the further side of this hill
Abel had his horses and guns in read
mess. While he himself, lying fiat upon
the level rock. watched the approach
ing Basutus as they came on Tor the
coveted cattle.
Now at the time none OF the hanr
tribes had horses-the southern Kahrs
had. in fact, no name for that animal,
but have since called it ''ihashe,"
Kafirised form of the English word.
Before driving off the oxen the Basu-
tus prowled curiously about the ruins
of AbeFs house But when he saw
them gather together in a group, lo><-
ing in at the door, where the corpses
of his family had lain-gloating, per-
haps they were. over their own work
he could stand ii no longer, but rushed
to his horse and rode desperately down
the hill. coming out on the plain two
or three hundred yards from the war
riors They saw him, and yelling and
brandishing their assegais, rushed to-
wards him, expecting to meet and
slaughter him, for he was gallopinS
straightway towards them. But Abel
knew when to turn. He knew too much
of assegais to be deceived in the dis
tance He fired both of his guns. each
knocking over a Basutus. The others
then ran to the slope of the hill, but
more of them fell before the remainder
found shelter behind the rocks and
powders.
Keeping well out of range of their
assega;s, he now dismounted and
picked them off one by one, as some
of them had only partial cover, and 9TH
ers foo,ishly and vauntingly taunted
him TO come closer. When no more
heads appeared Abel thought he might
safely draw closer, and ride around
to count the bodies. Two or three times
over lie counted, but could not find
more than nineteen. Where was the
other? For when they first came in
view he had counted a score. At all
costs the missing warrior must be
found. SO Abel rode around the hill to
the eastern side and there, afar off over
the plain, he saw the erstwhile most
boastful warrior of them all Logging it
as hard as he could go for the noun
aims. Abel galloped after him till
within good range. and then, dis
mounting, stopped him with a bullet.
On going up to see if he We're dead
he found his own wife's ring on the
fellows finger.
The fact that the warriors had hid
den behind the powders on the hill
side was not a lost lesson to Abel. He
determined that never again would he
let a party of them come so close to
the hill. Every day after that he kept
his solitary watch on the hill top while
his horses. saddled and ready browsed
on the slope.
On the third day after he saw an
other party come toward him from the
mountains. When they were still
couple os miles off he rode out to meet
them. When they saw him galloping
toward them they yelled, and with as
segais ready came on without quick
ening their pace. At a safe distance
iAC -ClllCo up lAAC0, pan.
Then he retreated, and they pursued at
run; thinking they would frighten
him the more, as they thought he was
going away from fear. However, as
soon as he had reloaded he doubled
back to meet them, and shot two
more. Then they stopped, for they
thought it dangerous to follow him
further. When he saw them halting
ha oil nd
firing and killing with every shot At
last they began running back, when
they had lost nearly half their num-
Der. Blu: the open plain gave them no
cover and Abel followed and shot,
until the last man tumbled over on the
veldt.
Returning to his post on the hill, he
waited a whole week, but no more ap-
peared; neither did any of the burgh.
ers come that way-a thing Abel was
glad of, for he feared they might in
sist on his joining their party
To eItice more Basutus out on the
plain he ran the risk of starting off
after Gark to drive the cattle toward
the mountains At dawn, while still
a considerable distance out on the plain,
he lighted a fire of withered grass to
cattle Craze about for a time he sat
in his saddle awaiting developments.
When at last he saw a party coming
after the cattle, he commenced to drive
them slowly toward his farm, as if he
didn't notice that any one was after
him. If he saw them gaining on him
he would go little faster, and some
time he pretended to have trobule with
the herd. so as to encourage his pur-
suers and entice them further out upon
the plain. On came the Basutus till
Abel thought that they were far
enough from the mountains for their
friends to remain ignorant of their fate
Then he. treated them as he did the
other bands that had preceded them
not one escaped to tell the fate of the
others.
How many different parties he sue
ceeded in thus wiping out is probably
unknown. but it is said that human
skeletons lined the trail from AbeIs
farm TO within three miles of the noun
tains Still the Basutus never suspect
| ed that one man was causing such
havoc. But they found it out by acci-
/ dent; for a larger party than usual
having set out on the spoor of the cat
tie, Abel made serious miscalculation
he had too many to kill in the time.
and was forced to let some of them es-
cape. The effect of their return was