"Outside were the noise of that fight, and inside were silence, and white set faces, and the tears running from Jimmie's eyes. "`Let me out!' he cried; `let me out!' he kep' on cryin'--`let me out!' and then he struggled to open the door. "Then we heard Jake again. "`Good-bye,' he sed; and we held our breath, till the fierce shout rose higher and higher, and we knew Jake were dead. "Then the ole man's beard curled up. He forgot about his other sons. He opened the door, and with a roar he ran into the Kaffirs, and Jimmie with him. Seth were follering, too, when an assegai whizzed into the room, and a Kaffir stood at the doorway, when Seth jabbed him in the stomach with the muzzle, and druv his fist into the face of another; then he pulled-to the door, and there were only him and Tom and me, with Willie dead and Harry gasping. "Then Seth began to sing. He'd stop to shoot, then he'd sing again; and the sound of his singing were worse than the yelling of the Kaffirs swarming all round the house. Tom he stood up in the room tremblin' and loadin', his face black where the smoke stuck to the tears, and once and again he'd jump to a hole and shoot. "And at last an ole pot leg struck Seth on the head and he sot down. "He put his hand to his head and looked at the blood; then he shook his head and laughed a strange laugh. "`It's all over,' he sed--`dang it.' Then he saw Harry, and he said softly: `Poor chap,' then he stared at Willie, and his eye came on to me watchin' him. "`Abe,' he sed, `you'll find my concertina hanging up; jes' hand it to me.' "Well, I gave it him, and bolted back into the tub, and he began to play. "The Kaffirs stopped, and I yeard one call out `Yinny!' and others said `Yoh!' and you could hear them trying to peep in. "`Tom,' he said soft. "`Yes, Seth.' "`You and Abe get into the mealie pit in the pantry. Maybe, they'll not see you.' "Tom he shook his head, and banged the gun--and the Kaffirs came hard at the door. "Seth he went on playing, and Harry rolled over. `I've got a pain,' he muttered; `mother, I've got a pain,'--and Seth he went on playing softer and softer. "Then I crawled away inter the dark of the pantry--inter the mealie hole." Abe stopped, and his face looked grey and aged. "Well, Abe?" "That's all sonny. They did not find me." "And what became of Tom?" "He went with his brothers, sonny. Seven better boys you'd never want to meet, and seven finer men you could not. They all went--in that one day--and the Kaffirs swep' on over the land." CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. OUT OF THE DEEP SEA. "I see that the magistrate at Port Nolloth has seen the sea-serpent. It was a mile out at sea--raised its head ten feet from the water, and remained in sight for an hour." "Is he partickler about the ten feet?" said Abe Pike. "Yes, he is explicit on that point."