Part 8 (1/2)

Presently, do as ould, the beaainst us We had not more than fifteen or sixteen effectives left now, and the Masai had at least fifty Of course if they had kept their heads, and shaken theether, they could soon have made an end of theyet recovered fro actually fled fro-places without their weapons Still by now e and discretion, and this alone was sufficient to defeat us To make matters worse just then, when Mackenzie's rifle was ee arye carver froht), they closed in desperate struggle Presently, locked in a close eround behind the wall, and for so a norance of his fate or how the duel had ended

To and fro surged the fight, slowly turning round like the vortex of a huan to look very bad for us Just then, however, a fortunate thing happened Un, broke out of the ring and engaged a warrior at some few paces from it As he did so, another man ran up and struck hireat spear, which, falling on the tough steel shi+rt, failed to pierce it and rebounded For aunknown a these tribes--and then he yelled out at the top of his voice--

'_They are devils--bewitched, bewitched!_' And seized by a sudden panic, he thren his spear, and began to fly I cut short his career with a bullet, and Uaas brained his man, and then the panic spread to the others

'_Bewitched, bewitched!_' they cried, and tried to escape in every direction, utterly de down their shi+elds and spears

On the last scene of that dreadful fight I need not dwell It was a slaughter great and griiven One incident, however, is worth detailing Just as I was hoping that it was all done with, suddenly fro, an unwounded warrior sprang up, and, clearing the piles of dying dead like an antelope, sped like the wind up the kraal towards the spot where I was standing at theon his tracks with the peculiar s-like nized in the Masai the herald of the previous night Finding that, run as he would, his pursuer was gaining on hiaas also pulled up

'Ah, ah,' he cried, in mockery, to the Elonani! the Herald! the capturer of little girls--he ould kill a little girl! And thou didst hope to stand aas, an Induna of the tribe of the Maquilisini, of the people of the Aranted! And I didst swear to hew thee li Behold, I will do it even now!'

The Masai ground his teeth with fury, and charged at the Zulu with his spear As he ca Inkosi-kaas high above his head with both hands, brought the broad blade doith such fearful force from behind upon the Masai's shoulder just where the neck is set into the frah bone and flesh andthe head and one araas, conte the corpse of his foe; 'I have kept ood stroke'

CHAPTER VIII ALPHONSE EXPLAINS

And so the fight was ended On returning fro scene it suddenly struckof Alphonse since the ht has taken a long while to describe, it did not take long in reality--when I had been forced to hit hithat the poor littlethe dead for his body, but, not being able either to see or hear anything of it, I concluded that he must have survived, and walked down the side of the kraal where we had first taken our stand, calling him by name Now some fifteen paces back from the kraal wall stood a very ancient tree of the banyan species So ancient was it that all the inside had in the course of ages decayed away, leaving nothing but a shell of bark

'Alphonse,' I called, as I walked down the wall 'Alphonse!'

'Oui, monsieur,' answered a voice 'Here am I'

I looked round but could see nobody 'Where?' I cried

'Here am I,out of a hole in the trunk of the banyan about five feet froe mustachios, one clipped short and the other as la Then, for the first time, I realized what I had suspected before--namely, that Alphonse was an arrant coward

I walked up to him 'Come out of that hole,' I said

'Is it finished, monsieur?' he asked anxiously; 'quite finished? Ah, the horrors I have undergone, and the prayers I have uttered!'

'Come out, you little wretch,' I said, for I did not feel amiable; 'it is all over'

'So, e,' and he did

As alking down together to join the others, ere gathered in a group by the wide entrance to the kraal, which now resembled a veritable charnel-house, a Masai, who had escaped so far and been hiding under a bush, suddenly sprang up and charged furiously at us Off went Alphonse with a howl of terror, and after hi some execution before he died He soon overtook the poor little Frenchman, and would have finished hionized double in the vain hope of avoiding the yard of steel that was flashi+ng in his ied to plant a bullet between the Elht matters to a satisfactory conclusion so far as the Frenchman was concerned But just then he tripped and fell flat, and the body of the Masai fell right on the top of hile Thereupon there arose such a series of piercing howls that I concluded that before he died the savage ed to stab poor Alphonse I ran up in a hurry and pulled the Masai off, and there beneath hi hiht I, he is done for, and kneeling down by hiles would allow

'Oh, the hole in my back!' he yelled 'I aain, but could see no wound Then the truth dawned on htened, not hurt

'Get up!' I shouted, 'Get up Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You are not touched'

Thereupon he rose, not a penny the worse 'But, etically; 'I did not know that I had conquered'