"
"Oh! Baas," he answered, grinning, "do you think that I have shot with
you all these years without knowing that a rifle must have a stock to
hold it by?"
Then he slipped off the bundle from his back, undid the lashings of
the blanket, revealing the great yellow head of tobacco that had
excited my own and Komba's interest on the shores of the lake. This
head he tore apart and produced the stock of the rifle nicely cleaned,
a cap set ready on the nipple, on to which the hammer was let down,
with a little piece of wad between to prevent the cap from being fired
by any sudden jar.
"Hans," I exclaimed, "Hans, you are a hero and worth your weight in
gold!"
"Yes, Baas, though you never told me so before. Oh! I made up my mind
that I wouldn't go to sleep in the face of the Old Man (death). Oh!
which of you ought to sleep now upon that bed that Bausi sent me?" he
asked as he put the gun together. "/You/, I think, you great stupid
Mavovo. /You/ never brought a gun. If you were a wizard worth the name
you would have sent the rifles on and had them ready to meet us here.
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