Part 13 (1/2)

”Very good,” I answered; ”but that mountain cannot be stormed with three hundred men, fortified as it is alls and schanzes Our band would be destroyed before ever we ca to the sentries who are set everywhere, it would be iotten the dogs, Saduko Moreover, even if it were possible, I will have nothing to do with the massacre of women and children, which must happen in an assault Now, listen to u alone, and this coht send fifty of our uides, down to yonder bush, where they will lie hid Then, after moonrise, when all are asleep, these fiftyany whothe herd out through yonder great pass by which we have entered the land Bangu and his people, thinking that those who have taken the cattle are but coather and follow the beasts to recapture thewane, can set an a the rocks, where the grass is high and the euphorbia trees grow thick, and there, when they have passed the Nek, which I and ive them battle What say you?”

Now, Saduko answered that he would rather attack the kraal, which he wished to burn But the old Awane, Tshoza, brother of the dead Matiwane, said:

”No, Macuht, is wise Why should aste our strength on stone walls, of which none know the nuates in the darkness, and thereby leave our skulls to be set up as ornaments on the fences of the accursed Amakoba? Let us draw the Amakoba out into the pass of the mountains, where they have no walls to protect them, and there fall on them when they are bewildered and settle the matter with them man to man As for the woo; afterwards, perhaps, they will becowane, ”the plan of the white Inkoosi is good; he is clever as a weasel; ill have his plan and no other”

So Saduko was overruled andno fires and re still as the dead in the dense bush It was a very anxious day, for although the place was so wild and lonely, there was always the fear lest we should be discovered It was true that we had travelleda spoor, and avoided all kraals; still, soht have reached the Aht stuht for lost cattle

Indeed, so of this sort did happen, for about ure of ahis way through the bush Before he saw us he was in our midst For a moment he hesitated ere he turned to fly, and that wane leapt on him silently as leopards leap upon a buck, and where he stood there he died

Poor fellow! Evidently he had been on a visit to some witch-doctor, for in his blanket we found medicine and love charms This doctor cannot have been one of the staht to myself; at least, he had not warned him that he would never live to dose his beloved with that foolish medicine

Meanwhile a few of us who had the quickest eyes cliu and the valley that lay between us and it Soonthat so far, at any rate, Fortune was playing into our hands, since herd after herd of kine were driven into the valley during the afternoon and enclosed in the stock-kraals Doubtless Bangu intended on the morrow to make his half-yearly inspection of all the cattle of the tribe, many of which were herded at a distance fro day drew to its close and the shadows of the evening thickened Then we ame, of which the stake was the lives of all of us, since, should we fail, we could expect no athered and ate food in silence

These men were placed under the cowane, and led by the three guides who had dwelt a the Amakoba, and who ”knew every ant-heap in the land,” or so they swore Their duty, it will be remembered, was to cross the valley, separate themselves into small parties, unbar the various cattle kraals, kill or hunt off the herdsmen, and drive the beasts back across the valley into the pass A second fifty men, under the command of Saduko, were to be left just at the end of this pass where it opened out into the valley, in order to help and reinforce the cattle-lifters, or, if need be, to check the following Aot away, and then fall back on the rest of us in our aee--a heavy one indeed

Now, the ht But two hours before that tian our moves, since the cattle ave the needful light Otherwise the fight in the pass would in all probability be delayed till after sunrise, when the Amakoba would see how small was the number of their foes Terror, doubt, darkness--these must be our allies if our desperate venture was to succeed

All was arranged at last and the time had come We, the three captains of our divided force, bade each other farewell, and passed the word down the ranks that, should we be separated by the accidents of war, -place of any who survived

Tshoza and his fifty glided away into the shadow silently as ghosts and were gone Presently the fierce-faced Saduko departed also with his fifty He carried the double-barrelled gun I had given him, and was accompanied by one of my best hunters, a Natal native, as also ars Our hope was that the sound of these guns ht terrify the foe, should there be occasion to use theain, andDutch white uns of that day were called--all natives wereain Then I,hunters, and the ten score A the road by which we had coed pass I call it a road, but, in fact, it was nothing but a water-washed gully streith boulders, through which wefirst reun, for fear lest the accidental discharge of one of them should warn the A all our deep-laid plans to nothing

Well, we acco lines, so that each ht keep touch with hian to rise reached the spot that I had chosen for the ambush

Certainly it ell suited to that purpose Here the track or gully bed narrowed to a width of not more than a hundred feet, while the steep slopes of the kloof on either side were clothed with scattered bushes and finger-like euphorbias which grew a stones Behind these stones and bushes we hid ourselves, a hundred men on one side and a hundred on the other, whilst I and uns, took up a position under shelter of a great boulder nearly five feet thick that lay but a little to the right of the gully itself, up which we expected the cattle would coht keep touch with both wings of ht down the path on the pursuing Awane, warning them that he who disobeyed would be punished with death They were not to stir until I, or, if I should be killed, one ofexcited, they ht leap out before the time and kill some of our own people, who very likely would beAnal had been given, they were to rush on the Aully, so that the eneht upwards on a steep slope

That was all I told the tooI added, however--that they must conquer or they must die There was no mercy for them; it was a case of death or victory Their spokesman--for these people always find a spokesman--answered that they thanked me for my advice; that they understood, and that they would do their best Then they lifted their spears to ht as they departed to take shelter behind the rocks and trees and wait

That waiting was long, and I confess that before the end it got upon s, such as whether I should live to see the sun rise again; also I reflected upon the legitiht had I to involve es?

Why had I coain cattle as a trader? No, for I was not at all sure that I would take theained Because Saduko had twitted me with faithlessness to my words? Yes, to a certain extent; but that was by no means the whole reason I had been s inflicted upon Saduko and his tribe by this Bangu, and therefore had not been loath to associate eance upon a wicked h so far as it went; but now a new consideration suggested itself to o; probably most of the ed, and it was their sons upon whoht had I to assist in visiting the sins of the fathers upon the sons? Frankly I could not say The thing seemed to me to be a part of the probleedthat very likely the issue would go against me, and that my own existence would pay the price of the venture and expound its moral This consideration soothed my conscience somewhat, for when a ht or wrong, at any rate he plays no coward's part

The ti htly in a clear sky, and as there was no wind the silence seeh of an occasional hyena and now and again for a sound which I took for the coughing of a distant lion, there was no stir between sleeping earth and moonlit heaven in which little clouds floated beneath the pale stars

At length I thought that I heard a noise, a kind of rew, it developed

It sounded like a thousand sticks tapping upon sorow, and I knew the sound for that of the beating hoofs of ani Then there were isolated noises, very faint and thin; theythat I could not mistake--shots fired at a distance So the business was afoot; the cattle werefor it but to wait