Part 17 (1/2)

”How horrible!” said Dorcas, for unfortunately she had overheard and understood this conversation

By the side of the river was a kind of shelf of rock that was used as a road, and over this they buon, till presently they were past the koppies and could see their future home beyond It was a plain some miles across, and entirely surrounded by precipitous hills, the river entering it through a gorge to the north In the centre of this plain was another large koppie of which the river _Ukufa_, or Death, washed one side Around this koppie, amid a certain area of cultivated land, stood the ”town” of the Christian branch of the Sisa It consisted of groups of huts, ten or a dozen groups in all, set on low ground near the river, which suggested that the populationbetween seven hundred and a thousand souls

At the ti, and had disappeared behind the western portion of the barricade of hills

Therefore the valley, if it loom that seemed almost unnatural when compared with the brilliant sky above, across which the radiant lights of an African sunset already sped like arrows, or rather like red and ominous spears of flame

”What a dreadful place!” exclaimed Dorcas ”Is our home to be here?”

”I suppose so,” answered Thomas, who to tell the truth for once was hiloomy, but after all it is very sheltered, and home is what one makes it,” he added sententiously

Here the conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the Chief and so been warned of its approach by er, to the number of a hundred and fifty or so had advanced to meet the party

They were afro at all Indeed, one tall, thin fellow sported only a battered helmet of rusty steel that had drifted here from some European army, a _moocha_ or waistbelt of catskins, and a pair of decayed tennis-shoes through which his toes appeared With them came ere evidently the remains of the church choir, when there was a church, for they wore dirty frag what seemed to be a hymn tune to the strains of a decadent accordion

The tune was long and ended in a kind of howl like to that of a disappointed jackal When at length it was finished the Chief Kosa appeared He was a ed man, become prematurely old because he had lived too fast in his pre-Christian days, or so report said Now he had a soers twitched and when he spoke hisover his shoulder as though he were afraid of soether he inspired Thoht be, clearly he was not a staff for a crusader to lean upon

Still he cah-bred native noble, such as he was, can almost invariably do Withthat he and his people, that is those of them ere Christians, would do their best to uage, adding that he on his part would do his best to promote their welfare and to save their souls

Kosa replied that he was glad to hear it, because these needed saving, since most of the Sisa people were now servants of the devil Since the last _U the road to hell at a very great pace,all kinds of witchcraft under the guidance of the _Isanusi_ or doctor, Menzi This man, he added, had burned down the church and the h these had seeesture Thomas announced that he would soon settle Menzi and all his works, and that lad if Kosa would lead them to the place where they were to sleep

So they started, the accordion- the way, and trekked for about a mile and a half till they ca it by following the left bank of the river that washed its western face

Passing between a nuone generations had sheltered the cattle of Chaka and other Zulu kings, they reached a bay in the side of the koppie that e of the river, but standing a little above it, were the burnt-out ruins of a building that by its shape had evidently been a church, and near to it other ruins of a school and of a house which once was thefrom within those cracked and melancholy walls the sound of a fierce, defiant chant which Tho, as indeed it was It was a very i, chanted byit were the King's oxen, born to kill the King's ene, and so forth; a deep-noted, savage song that thrilled the blood, at the first sound of which the accordion gave a feeble wail and metaphorically expired

”Isn't that beautifullike that before,” exclaimed Tabitha

Before Thomas could answer, out from the ruined doorway of the Church issued a band of ht have been a hundred of thenificent panoply of old-tie shi+elds upon their ar from their knees and elbows

They for broad-bladed assegais Then at a signal they halted by the wagon and uttered a deep-throated salute

In front of their lines was a little withered old felloho carried neither shi+eld nor spear, but only a black rod to which was bound the tail of a _wildebeeste_ Except for his _rey hair oven a polished ring of black guy neck was a necklace of baboon's teeth and aht have been either alive or stuffed

His face, though aged and shrunken, was fine-featured and full of breeding, while his hands and feet were very s, the eyes of a lance was as sharp as a bradawl Just noas fixed on Thoh The owner of the eyes, as Thouessed at once, was Menzi, a witch-doctor very famous in those parts

”Why are these ainst the law for Kaffirs to carry spears,” he said to the Chief

”This is Portuguese Territory; there is no law in Portuguese Territory,”

answered Kosa with a vacant stare

”Then we ht be all murdered here and no notice taken,” exclaimed Thomas