Among these was Hans, for, as it chanced, I saw and sent him with the others, so that I might be sure that my own horses would be found and made ready for the journey.
Just as we were starting, I met the lad William Wood, who had come down from the Mission huts, where he lived with Mr.Owen, and was wandering about with an anxious face.
"How are you, William ?" I asked.
"Not very well, Mr.Quatermain," he answered.

"The fact is," he added with a burst of confidence, "I feel queerly about you all.

The Kaffirs have told me that something is going to happen to you, and I think you ought to know it.

I daren't say any more," and he vanished into the crowd.
At that moment I caught sight of Retief riding to and fro and shouting out orders.

Going to him, I caught him by the sleeve, saying: "Commandant, listen to me." "Well, what is it now, nephew ?" he asked absently.
I told him what Wood had said, adding that I also was uneasy; I did not know why.
"Oh!" he answered with impatience, "this is all hailstones and burnt grass" (meaning that the one would melt and the other blow away, or in our English idiom, stuff and rubbish).