The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-01-28

would fare Tar worse before Sne thirsts were traversed. AS soon as he had finished, Guys restless spirit asserted itself again. He was almost feverishly desirous to get on again.
 "Wheres the damned vor-looper?" ?" he asked impatiently.
 The leisurely transport-rider saw no occasion for hurry.
 "Biineby he come. Then we in- span.''
 But the Englishman was in no mood for the tardy methods of the long trek.
 "Go and look for him." he ordered peremptorily. Bring the beasts in, and we'll get on at once.'
 The Basuto glanced meaningly up at the sun, but. he started out with out further demur, for he knew his master. The other Kaffir followed suit, and Guy was left alone to his and washed himself.
 At no time an easy man, his nerves were on edge now. He would know no peace until the rumbling, jolting vehicle was under way. bearing him on towards his destination. He had made the journey from Jacobsdaal to his wagon without nishap-without any opposition from the man he had come to regard with some sort of un- acknowledged fear, and he was satis- fled, though not easy. When he had put another hundred miles between him and any chance of pursuit it would be better.
 Still, he believed he had outwitted the man. His movements had been made with all the cunning of which he was master, and he did not see how it was possible for any one to have tracked him. He had struck across the veldt as the crow flies. leaving all roads and beaten tracks well alone; nor, beyond an odd Kaffir herd or two, had he seen a single human being on his way.
 It was sundown when the boys re- turned. They came bringing with them the vor-looper, stripling Vaal- pen, under-sized. and half-starved. But came without the cattle.
 The moment he saw them Guy un- derstood, and his dark face paled 10 a livfd fury.
 ''Well?" he cried, as they broke their way through the last bush.
 They lost" said the transport-rid- CT simply, yet not without a quick glance of apprehension at his master.
 Guy struggled to hold himself in check.
 "How's that?" he asked harshly. while his eyes lit dangerously. He had turned upon the vaalpen vor- looper.
 The boy began a long, whining ex- planation. But Guy was deaf to all strayed while the boy had slept. and were lost on the high veldt. His fury choked him; he had no words. A merciless rage drove him; and he wretched vaalpen up to the wagon wheels. while he picked up a heavy raw-hide sjambok lying on the ground beside his saddle. With demoniacal expression light ing his dark face, he stood by while the boy" was fastened to the wheel. The sjambok was flicking his boot leg with resounding thwacks. His rage was such that he could not keep still
 The Kaffirs moved away. Guy 1 stopped up to the boy and measured his stroke deliberately, so that the victim. Then he raised the thong and brought it down upon the poor wretch's bare back. Again he raised it, and again it fell. He put forth ingly have killed the boy, only that killing would not have satisfied his ferocity of tho moment. | Great weals sprang up instantane- ously under the murderous blows; the flesh, in spite of its color, crim- soned as the blood rose to the sur- face; it broke, and the ruddy tide began to flow. Forty blows laid the suffering creatures back completely open--a mass of torn and bleeding flesh. But through it all the boy l uttered no sound. Only his body shrank against the wheel, quivering with each sickening blow; and, at the finish, when the others cut him loose. he fell in heap on the ground without uttering a sound. | Guy and his two drivers spent the whole of that night in the open veldt. The Kaffirs hunted, with all their in- stincts alert. for spoor and sound. The white man was like one possessed. For the time at least he was beside himself with rage and fear. With out his cattle he could not proceed.