"It were, an' no mistake. I could a' shot him then, an' put a stop to two wars; but a good many things could be done, sonny, if only we could see ahead. Well, for all they'd made friends, those two didn't trust one another--not a bit, not they--they jes' sat there glancing acrost the coals, nodding, an' wakin' up with a start, and when one on 'em moved t'other would have his eyes wide open. Long before sun-up they moved off, an' I crep' outer my hidin' place to the fire, where I found jes' a coal-blackened strip o' meat that jes' made me hungrier than afore. Lor' love you, a human is a helpless crittur. There was animiles about an' birds, but as I darn't use my gun I couldn't get one. I cotched a salamander and ate him, an' a land crab by the stream, an' ate him--an' I ate some berries, an' a clutch o' young birds from the nest, and I had a bathe--and took up the spoor of the two of 'em. 'Twas easier spoorin' now, for they was going slow, and at mid-day I had 'em in sight, and so kep' 'em till the last. In the afternoon we were climbing a ridge among the bushes, when boomin' along there came the sound of music that brought the three of us to a dead stop. Never had young Abe yeard any sound like that afore or since 'cept once--it went through my worn-out body until I trembled like a leaf--yes, sonny--and the wet ran down my cheeks. 'Twas the soun' of a big drum." "There's not much music in that, Abe." "Isn't there, sonny? Not when you've been three days in the woods, skeered of every shadder; not when you've yeard the war-cry of the red Kaffir; not when the cries of the little ones waitin' for the assegai are ringin' in yer head. Only the soun' of a drum. One, big boomin' note, rolling clear an' far with a message of help. The tiredness an' the sickness fell from me, sonny, an' I could a' run up that hill. The other two they crept up presently, and bymby I follered and hid behind 'em. They was crouchin' by a rock, lookin' down, and I forgot 'em in lookin' at the picture. Far below in the valley was the white tents, an' the cattle, an' a line of red where the soldiers were drawn up, bayonets flashing. Then a troop of men on horseback rode down the line, and again the drums beat and the bugles rang out. It was a picture, sonny, that I could a' looked at all day, but I were jes' jerked out o' my spell o' dreamin' by the chief talkin'." "`Yoh,' he said, `they are few, but what noise is that?'