not come on. The leader again spoke.

"Once more, who art thou? He who wanders in the retreat of the
Bapongqolo must needs give an account of himself."

"_E-he_!" assented the others.

Then I lowered shield and weapons at once.

"I am Untuswa, the son of Ntelani. Perchance ye have heard of him, ye
who are refugees."

By the look which they exchanged I knew they had heard of me. Then the
leader said:

"What seek you here, Untuswa, for in truth that is a name which is
known?"

"I seek a refuge among the people who are in refuge," I said.

"Why then, thou art welcome, Untuswa," he replied. "I am Sifadu, the
son of Kona, and I wielded a sharp spear in the ranks of the
Imbele-bele, of which I was a captain. But Tola, that jackal-spawned
cheat, did name my father at a witch-finding, and he, being old, died
the death of the black ants; but I and the remainder of his house
escaped--and here we are."

"Tola will name no more, Sifadu," I said. "The knob-sticks of the
King's slayers have put that form of pleasure beyond his reach."

"He is dead, then! _Haul_ I am glad, and yet not, for one day I had
promised myself the delight of having him enticed here that he might die
the death my father suffered through him. I would pay ten cows as the
price of that pleasure--yes, willingly." And the look on the face of
Sifadu was such that it was perhaps as well for Tola in the long run
that he had died the swift and painless death of the knobstick.

Thus we conversed, Sifadu and I, and as we journeyed I told him and the
others a great deal of what had happened; of the invasion of the
Amabuna, and how we had destroyed many of them. They had heard
something of this, but I, who had taken part in it, was able to tell
them everything. But what they especially wanted to know about was the
rumour of plotting in favour of Mpande. Of this, however, I could not
tell them much, because I knew but little myself.

The principal place of the Bapongqolo consisted not of one large kraal,
but a number of small ones; and so scattered were these, and so
carefully hidden, away in the dense forest which covered the slopes of a
vast hollow or bowl, that it would be well-nigh impossible to strike
them all at one blow; and to this end was such concealment planned.
Impossible, too, would it have been for any considerable number of men
to have penetrated the hollow without their advance having been long
since known to the inhabitants, so d