I am as full of it as a bee's nest is with honey
when the summer is done. And, Baas, I can stop those leaks in the
cask."
"Hans, it is no good, I don't want you. I am going into great danger.
I must have those about me whom I can trust."
"Well, Baas, and who can be better trusted than Hans? Who warned you
of the attack of the Quabies on Maraisfontein, and so saved the life
of----"
"Hush!" I said.
"I understand. I will not speak the name. It is holy not to be
mentioned. It is the name of one who stands with the white angels
before God; not to be mentioned by poor drunken Hans. Still, who stood
at your side in that great fight? Ah! it makes me young again to think
of it, when the roof burned; when the door was broken down; when we
met the Quabies on the spears; when you held the pistol to the head of
the Holy One whose name must not be mentioned, the Great One who knew
how to die. Oh! Baas, our lives are twisted up together like the
creeper and the tree, and where you go, there I must go also. Do not
turn me away.
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