



Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Cover art]




[Illustration: The rhinoceros, snorting loudly, was upon them.]




                            *The Gold Kloof*


                                   BY

                              H. A. BRYDEN



                         THOMAS NELSON AND SONS
               _London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and New York_
                                  1907




                              _CONTENTS._

      I. _School Days_
     II. _Bamborough Farm_
    III. _Up-country Life_
     IV. _The Gold Spoor_
      V. _The Trek Begins_
     VI. _The Shadowers and the Shadowed_
    VII. _Adventures in the Veldt_
   VIII. _The Elephant Country_
     IX. _In the Thirst-land_
      X. _Tom's Story.--The Baboon Boy_
     XI. _The Berg Damaras_
    XII. _The Lion Camp_
   XIII. _Guy is Missing_
    XIV. _Poeskop to the Rescue_
     XV. _The Kloof_
    XVI. _Gathering Gold_
   XVII. _The Shadowers' Attack_
  XVIII. _The Last of Karl Engelbrecht_
    XIX. _Homeward Bound_




                           *THE GOLD KLOOF.*



                              *Chapter I.*

                             *SCHOOL DAYS.*


It was a fine, hot July day on the banks of the Severn river at
Tewkesbury, that quaint, old-world, and somewhat decayed town, which
offers to the inspection of the visitor and the archaeologist some of
the most ancient and interesting buildings to be seen in any part of
broad England.  There was some stir on the banks of the river, for two
public schools, one of them situate in the west of England, the other
hailing from a Midland shire, were about to contest with one another in
their annual