"Then all is well, Macumazahn." (_A pause._) "It _was_ a spy in the bush, not a buck. He overheard our talk. The king's slayers came. Gita held the door of the hut while I took the child, cut a hole through the straw with my assegai, and crept out at the back. She was full of spears before she died, but I got away with the boy. Till your Kaffirs found me I lay hid in the bush, hoping to escape to Natal. Then I ran for the river, and saw you on the further bank. _I_ might have got away, but that child is heavy." (_A pause._) "Give him food, Macumazahn, he must be hungry," (_A pause._) "Farewell. That was a good saying of yours--the swift runner is outrun at last. Ah! yet I did not run in vain." (_Another pause, the last._) Then he lifted himself upon one arm and with the other saluted, first the boy Sinala and next me, muttering, "Remember your promise, Macumazahn." * * * * * "That is how Magepa the Buck died. I never saw any one carrying weight who could run quite so well as he," and Quatermain turned his head away as though the memory of this incident affected him somewhat. "What became of the child Sinala?" I asked presently. "Oh, I sent him to an institution in Natal, and afterwards was able to get some of his property back for him. I believe that he is being trained as an interpreter." [Illustration] FOOTNOTE: [2] For this story see the book named "Child of Storm," by H. Rider Haggard. [Illustration] TRUE SPARTAN HEARTS BY BEATRICE HARRADEN _Painting and Decorations by_ EDMUND DULAC IN times of war the Spartan women used to say to their husbands and sons, "Return with your shield, or on it," meaning that they must either conquer or die. There was no affection or indulgence shown towards the warriors who survived a defeat; for loyalty to the State was thought of more account than personal loss, and he who had not died striking his last blow for Sparta, was deemed unworthy of remembrance, and could expect no mercy from those who had loved him and sent him to the battlefield "to conquer or die." So this was how the Spartans felt about their warriors; and you can imagine their indignation as well as their dismay when, in the year 371 B.C., news reached Sparta that their army had been defeated at the battle of Leuctra by the Boeotians, a rival Grecian State, and that three hundred men had saved their lives in flight. The news was brought at the moment when some great festival was being celebrated in the city. The _Ephors_ commanded the names of the slain to be made known to their relatives, and the women were forbidden to mourn. But the mother of Eucrates could not at first hide her grief, and her neighbours said among themselves: "Why should she be sorrowful? Her son has died bravely. If he had disgraced himself by flight, then only would she have the right to mourn."