"Baas," he said, addressing Mr. Blakeney, "you think badly of me, and I daresay you have good cause. But I am not so bad as you think me. I was Engelbrecht’s servant, and had to do his bidding. If I dared to disobey him I should have been flogged, and perhaps shot. Like your own man, Poeskop, I was afraid of him, and only wanted to get out of his service." "Well, that may or may not be," said Mr. Blakeney coolly. "Anyhow, I’ll give you a chance. I’ll untie you, and if you work for us quietly and well during the daytime you shall have your liberty. At night you’ll have to be tied up, until we feel we can trust you." "Very well, baas," said the man. "That is good enough for me. I’ll prove to you that I am willing to work for my skorf, and that I am not so bad as you may think me." Untying the Hottentot, therefore, they set him to work with pick and spade to dig a grave for his dead master. They themselves, meanwhile, proceeded to disentangle the ladder from the confusion in which it had fallen. This was a work of some little time. Then they removed the battered corpse of Karl Engelbrecht--a terrible spectacle--and laid it in the grave dug by Quasip. This done, they proceeded up the valley, and spent the remainder of the day in their gold-mining operations. They took the Hottentot with them; it was evident that he was sincere in his attempt to please them. He plied pick and shovel, and worked away steadily till dusk, when they relinquished their labours and returned to their camping ground. For the next three days they steadily pushed on with their mining work. On the whole they did much better than they had anticipated, coming upon a fresh and very rich find of gold, which lay a few feet below the surface in some alluvial ground at the head of the stream. Each night they added considerably to the big pile of treasure already accumulated near the ladder foot. That morning Poeskop had appeared at daybreak at the top of the cliff, and shouted down to them. It was difficult to gather clearly what he said, but they understood him to mean that in two more days he would be ready for them. "That means five days’ waiting instead of three," said Tom, as they returned to breakfast. "Yes, it’s a long wait," replied his father. "But I expect they may have had some trouble in shooting game and getting hide for the rope. However, a day or so extra down here won’t hurt us." "Not a bit," said Guy, who took the whole matter very good humouredly. "We shall be all the richer." "Oh, that’s all very well," retorted Tom, "but I want to get out of this place. I shan’t feel happy till I’m on the top of the cliff yonder, and we’ve inspanned the oxen and are trekking for home. By the way, pater," he went on, "which route are we going home? By Mossamedes or Benguela?"