ve to draw up the line. This
they did, being crafty enough to hope that my escape was to compass
their own.

"Fortunately for me, the aperture was not large enough to admit the
passage of more than one body at a time, wherefore, when my head rose
above the surface, the only things I saw were the backs of eight or ten
men who had hauled me to the surface by the simple plan of walking away
with the other end of the thong! They must have thought that the slayer
and the `ox' were being drawn up together, from the weight of it. How
they were tugging and straining! _Au, Nkose_! you would have laughed
aloud to have seen the scare on the faces of those men when they turned
round to behold--not the dead carcase, their expected cannibal feast,
but a big live Zulu warrior, fully armed with shield and weapons,
charging upon them like lightning, roaring out the war-shout with all
the power of his lungs! _Hau_! Did they run? Did they scream? _Hau_!
I saw nothing but their backs as they leaped away among the rocks in
all directions, and, indeed, it is little to be wondered at if they did.
And I, _Nkose_--having sufficiently frightened them, I did not linger
either.

"When I emerged from the hole into the broad light of day--the shades of
evening, rather, for it was growing dark--I saw that I was in a small
rocky hollow, in the middle of which a fire was burning, doubtless for
cooking the expected meal of the _Izimu_. But having given those who
fled a sufficient fright, I lost no time in doing as they did, and
fleeing myself. The growing darkness, too, was in my favour, and as I
gained the outer ridge of the hollow, I saw beneath, a long rugged slope
falling into the far depths of the defile up which our _impi_ had
marched the day before, and then my heart felt light again, and I began
to sing softly to myself for joy, for now I could find my way back to
Ekupumuleni. My enemy Gungana was cleared out of my path, I had fought
well and bravely, and Kalipe, the war-chief who would succeed him, and
who was kindly disposed towards me, would `point at' me at the
_Tyay'igama_ dance. Then, after all I had gone through and my strange
experiences, the face of the King would soften towards me, and I should
obtain my heart's desire. And, as though it were a good omen, I almost
stumbled over a young buck crouching on the mountain-side, to send an
assegai through which was as a flash of time. But I dared not light a
fire, lest scatter