His pistol lay on the bench, Gray seized it. "Put it down, Gray," said Lee; "I know my man now; besides, you fool, do you suppose he would have left a loaded weapon behind him if he was bringing an enemy upon us? Put it down, I say," and he took it out of the hand of the deserter, who, as his prospects opened before him, began to deplore his state, and longed, with thoughts half-bewildered, to free himself from the net he felt gradually closing round him. Lee read mistrust, and what he called fear, in the face of his unfortunate companion. The mistrust was unmistakable, but the fear was that which a heart, born as honest as human nature can be, feels when involved in wrong-doing, from which there is no escape. "Stay, Brennard," said Lee, indicating an assumption of confidence in Gray. "I suspect I know what that whistle means. I have no secret from my friend here," laying his hand on the shoulder of the deserter as he spoke. "I have told you as much as need be of my tale, and now let us make a bargain--there is nothing like plain speaking in great emergencies; and as I have a pretty strong notion that through your information we might be handed over to the authorities, I do not mind reminding you that we might do the same by you; and that while our fate would only be re-transportation--for we have escaped from the wreck of the _Trafalgar_--_perhaps_ yours would be a dance in the air. Whether the hut in the kloof is still in its old place, I cannot tell; but a commando out here would soon rout out your stores, and either take you prisoner, or set a price on your head. At any rate, the game would be up with you as a respectable British trader,"--Lee laughed heartily--"and you would be at the mercy of the Kafirs or the Dutch, into whatever territory you might wander." He whom the convict so addressed was a man of powerful frame-- deep-chested, and rather short-armed, every limb proved strength; backed by a couple of Kafirs, he might have despatched his visitors; but, although a dealer in contraband stores, and accustomed to danger, and at times to scenes of warfare, in which he was supposed to take a part against the very population he helped to arm,--although, in fact, he, like Lee, was a traitor, he would have hesitated at a deed of cold-blooded murder on his own hearth. In a word, no two men could have better understood each other than Lee, the convict, and John Brennard, the trader of the Witches' Krantz (Cliff). As for Gray, he might truly be considered, what a late ruffian was described to be, "the victim of circumstances,"--with wearied body and aching heart, he sat by, a passive listener; passive, because he _could_ not help himself.