Among the dead was the Captain Niel----" Here Bessie uttered a sort of choking cry, and let the letter fall over the verandah, to one of the posts of which she clung with both her hands.
The ill-favoured native below grinned, and, picking the paper up, handed it to her.
She took it, feeling that she must know all, and read on like one reads in some ghastly dream: "who has been staying on your uncle's farm.

I did not see him killed myself, but Jan Vanzyl shot him, and Roi Dirk Oosthuizen, and Carolus, a Hottentot, saw them pick him up and carry him away.

They say that he was quite dead.

For this I fear you will be sorry, as I am, but it is the chance of war, and he died fighting bravely.

Make my obedient compliments to your uncle.