“He smiled, showing a set of splendid teeth, pulled out his watch, hit it back and front with his knuckles till it rattled to the very centre of the works, spat carefully, and replied with some pride:
“‘We brought in twenty oxen last week; the chief very pleased with us, and gave us a nice share, Marenna.’
“Setsedi addressed me thus when he was pleased with himself and the universe: Marenna means sir.
“‘Well, Setsedi,’ said I, ‘if I can get leave, I would like to go out with you to-night. May I bring my boy, Malasata?’
“The idea of my asking his permission gave Setsedi such a lift up in his own opinion of himself that he actually reflected with his chin in the air before he finally gave his royal assent to my proposition.
“Time and place were settled, and I went back to the club for a wash. These black chaps, if they don’t help us much in fighting, have proved themselves very useful in providing us now and then with rich, juicy beef from the Boer herds that stray about the veldt. When I went home and told Malasata he was to accompany me to-night on a cattle-raiding foray, like a true Kaffir, he concealed his delight, and only said, ‘Ā-hă, Ā-hă, Unkos!’ but he could not prevent his great brown eyes from sparkling with pleasure. When it was pitch-dark we started—about a score of us—and crept along silently past the outposts, word having been passed that the raiders were to go and come with a Kaffir password or countersign.
“Most of the Kaffirs were stark naked, the better to evade the grasp of any Boer who might clutch at them. A sergeant had been told off to accompany them; he and I were the only white men out that night. After an hour’s careful climbing and crawling, stopping to listen and feel the wind, the better to gauge our direction, Setsedi came close to my ear and whispered:
“‘We can smell them, Baas; plenty good smell. You and sergeant stay here; sit down, wait a bit; boots too much hullabaloo; too loud talkee!’
“It was disappointing, but we quite saw the need of this caution, and we neither of us saw the necessity of walking barefoot upon a stony veldt; so we sat down in the black silence, and waited. Yet it was not so silent as it seemed: we could hear the bull-frogs croaking a mile away in the river-bed, and sometimes a distant tinkle of a cow-bell came to us on the soft breeze, or a meercat rustled in the grass after a partridge. In about half an hour we heard something; was it a reed-buck? Then came the falling of a stone, the crackling of a stick as it broke under their tread; then we rose and walked towards our black friends.
“Three or four Kaffirs were shepherding each ox, ‘getting a move’ on him by persuasion or fist-law. Sometimes one ox would be restive and ‘moo’ to his mates, or gallop wildly hither and thither; but always the persistent, ubiquitous Kaffir kept in touch with his beast, talking to him softly like a man and a brother, and guiding him the way he should go. And all this time the Boers were snoring not 300 yards off, sentry and all, very probably. But it would not do to count upon their negligence; any indiscreet noise might awake a trenchful of Mauser-armed men, and bring upon us a volley of death.