Also the man, who had been on many hunting trips with sportsmen, could talk Dutch well and English enough to make himself understood, and therefore was useful.
He went as I bade him, and coming back presently, told me that a party of Basutos, about thirty in number, who were returning from Kimberley, where they had been at work in the mines, under the leadership of a Bastard named Karl, asked leave to camp by the wagon for the night, as they were afraid to go on to "Tampel" in the dark.
At first I could not make out what "Tampel" was, as it did not sound like a native name.

Then I remembered that Mr.Marnham had spoken of his house as being called the Temple, of which, of course, Tampel was a corruption; also that he said he and his partner were labour agents.
"Why are they afraid ?" I asked.
"Because, Baas, they say that they must go through a wood in a swamp, which they think is haunted by spooks, and they much afraid of spooks;" that is of ghosts.
"What spooks ?" I asked.
"Don't know, Baas.

They say spook of some one who has been killed." "Rubbish," I replied.

"Tell them to go and catch the spook; we don't want a lot of noisy fellows howling chanties here all night." Then it was that Anscombe broke in in his humorous, rather drawling voice.
"How can you be so hard-hearted, Quatermain?
After the supernatural terror which, as I told you, I experienced in that very place, I wouldn't condemn a kicking mule to go through it in this darkness.

Let the poor devils stay; I daresay they are tired." So I gave in, and presently saw their fires beginning to burn through the end canvas of the wagon which was unlaced because the night was hot.