This done, I tried to throw out my mind towards Brother John
if he still lived, as indeed I had done for days past, so that I might
inform him of our plight and, I am afraid, reproach him for having
brought us to such an end by his insane carelessness or want of faith.
Whilst I was still engaged thus Babemba arrived with his soldiers to
lead us off to execution. It was Hans who came to tell me that he was
there. The poor old Hottentot shook me by the hand and wiped his eyes
with his ragged coat-sleeve.
"Oh! Baas, this is our last journey," he said, "and you are going to
be killed, Baas, and it is all my fault, Baas, because I ought to have
found a way out of the trouble which is what I was hired to do. But I
can't, my head grows so stupid. Oh! if only I could come even with
Imbozwi I shouldn't mind, and I will, I /will/, if I have to return as
a ghost to do it. Well, Baas, you know the Predikant, your father,
told us that we don't go out like a fire, but burn again for always
elsewhere----"
("I hope not," I thought to myself.
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