“Dah!” he said, pointing behind him with the dangerous-looking assagai he carried.
“Did you see me coming?”
He nodded, it being one of his habits to say as little in English as he could.
“Tell me: have you got anything to eat?” I said. “I’m starving.”
He darted back to the other side of the ridge, and came back with the strap of a big canvas satchel over his shoulder, the bag-part looking bulky in the extreme.
“Um Tant Jenny,” he said, frowning, as he shook the satchel, and then proceeded to scrape off with the blade of his stabbing-assagai the large ants which had scented the contents and were swarming to the attack. “Is there any water near?” I asked.
“Um,” said Joeboy, pointing towards the other side of the ridge.
“Then there will be grass too,” I said. “Go on, and show the way. Quick!”
The great black nodded and went off at a trot, taking me over the ridge and down a steep slope into a large gap in the side of the hill; and a quarter of an hour later we were alongside a bubbling stream, where long, rich, juicy grass grew in abundance.
Directly after Sandho was grazing contentedly; and when I had drunk from the pure fresh water, I was devouring rather than eating the magnified salt-beef sandwiches of which the satchel contained ample store, while Joeboy grinned to see the way in which one disappeared.