The Settler and the Savage

“Why, yes,” said John Skyd, “we did hear it, and so did your man Dally. We had thought—”

“The truth is, sir,” said George, advancing with a miniature pitchfork or “tormentor” in his hand; “pardon my interrupting you, sir,—I did hear the screech, but as I couldn’t say exactly for certain, you know, that it was a Kafir, not havin’ seen one, I thought it best not to alarm you, sir, an’ so said nothing about it.”

“You looked as if you had seen one,” observed Frank Dobson, drawing down the corners of his mouth with his peculiar smile.

“Did I, sir!” said George, with a simple look; “very likely I did, for I’m timersome by nature an’ easily frightened.”

“You did not act with your wonted wisdom, George, in concealing this,” said Edwin Brook gravely.

“I’m afraid I didn’t sir,” returned George meekly.

“In future, be sure to let me know every symptom of danger you may discover, no matter how trifling,” said Brook.

“Yes, sir.”

“It was a very tremendous yell, wasn’t it, Dally?” asked John Skyd slily, as the waiter-cook was turning to resume his duties at the fire.

“Wery, sir.”

“And alarmed us all dreadfully, didn’t it?”

“Oh! dreadfully, sir—’specially me; though I must in dooty say that you four gentleman was as bold as brass. It quite relieved me when I saw your tall figurs standin’ at the mouth o’ your cavern, an’ the muzzles o’ your four double-guns—that’s eight shots—with your glaring eyes an’ pale cheeks behind them!”

“Ha!” exclaimed John Skyd, with a grim smile—“but after all it might only have been the shriek of a baboon.”

“I think not, sir,” replied George, with a smile of intelligence.

“Perhaps then it was the cry of a zebra or quagga,” returned John Skyd, “or a South African ass of some sort.”

“Wery likely, sir,” retorted George. “I shouldn’t wonder if it was—which is wery consolin’ to my feelin’s, for I’d sooner be terrified out o’ my wits by asses of any kind than fall in with these long-legged savages that dwell in caves.”

With an appearance of great humility George returned to his work at the fire.

It was either owing to a sort of righteous retribution, or a touch of that fortune which favours the brave, that George Dally was in reality the first, of this particular party of settlers, to encounter the black and naked inhabitant of South Africa in his native jungle. It was on this wise.

George was fond of sport, when not detained at home by the claims of duty. But these claims were so constant that he found it impossible to indulge his taste, save, as he was wont to say, “in the early morn and late at eve.”

One morning about daybreak, shouldering his gun and buckling on his hunting-knife, he marched into the jungle in quest of an antelope. Experience had taught him that the best plan was to seat himself at a certain opening or pass which lay on the route to a pool of water, and there bide his time.