e bodies of armed warriors
who might or might not have been in search of me; but these I easily
eluded, though delayed thereby; and the third evening after parting with
Lalusini I was well in among the wildest solitudes of the Ngome forest.

And they were solitudes, _Nkose_. The great slopes and spurs of the
mountains were covered with dense forest surging up in seas of foliage
against the immense rock walls of the Lebombo mountains. Below, chasms
and deep ravines through which the mountain streams whimpered, half
hidden beneath the decaying vegetation and rotting tree-trunks of ages.
And of animal life, of bird life, of insect life--_whau_! the air was
never still. By day the black chasms boomed with the hoarse bark of the
dog-snouted baboons, and at night thundered from cliff to cliff the roar
of the lion. Birds chattered and piped, and the buzz of insects hung
ever upon the air, but of man and his habitations never a sign.

"Now," thought I, "where are these people of whom Lalusini spoke? for
these solitudes are not altogether to my mind. I like better not to
dwell alone," But still I wandered through unpeopled forests, seeing no
sign of man, I grew uneasy. There was abundance of game, easily slain,
too. Still I desired converse.

This, however, came my way at last, and in right startling manner did it
come. I had turned the corner of a great rock, where the track I had
been following opened into a grassy glade. Suddenly there sprang up
right at my feet several men fully armed, who, with a loud shout, called
on me to halt.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE VENGEANCE OF THE REFUGEES.

"An _impi_ sent by Dingane," was my first thought, as I gassed upon the
fierce countenances and the spears poised aloft with threatening flash.

"Who art thou--and whence?" said he who appeared to be the leader, a
tall man and savage of mien.

"Rather, who are ye?" I answered, with another question, affronted by
the insolent tone employed by the speaker.

"See these," he answered swiftly. "Speak or die! You are one man, and
these are several."

"Yet I have fought with several before this day, O Unknown," I retorted,
with a swift movement, throwing up my shield in defence, at the same
time backing towards the rock, so that they could not get round me. So
I stood ready for a merry fight, for the leader alone would have taken
up all my attention, so tall and strong was he--and there were others.

To my surprise they did