re alike, risks as
well as good times. Come now, Dawes, if I think you're bothering over
that, it'll go far towards knocking the bottom out of me. Hang it all,
can't we get on the horses some dark night, and make a dash for it?"

"We can't, Ridgeley, and for this reason. It would simply be the death
warrant of all our people if we succeeded, and of ourselves if we
didn't. I'm not a more straight-laced chap than most, but, you see, I
can't exactly bring myself to slope off and leave Sintoba and the rest
of them in the lurch. No. We must either march out as we came, with
all the honours of war, or--stay here."

"I never thought of it from that point of view, I admit," said Gerard.

"There is another scheme I've been plotting, but it don't pan out
overmuch," went on Dawes. "If one could manage to smuggle you out, by
hook or by crook, you might find your way to Ulundi, and lay the case
before the king, always provided there's no such thing as a British war,
of course. But, bar that event, Cetywayo would soon bring Master
Ingonyama to book. He's a straight man, is Cetywayo, and well-disposed
towards Englishmen, though we have been badgering him more than enough
of late. But he'd never allow a couple of British subjects to be put
upon in this outrageous manner by one of his own subordinate chiefs."

"By Jove! that is an idea," said Gerard. "But would it be better than
knocking up a rescue expedition among our own people--in Natal for
instance?"

"Rather. About five hundred per cent, better. Why such an expedition
would mean a young war, and do you think Government would embark on that
for the sake of a brace of poor devils of traders? Not much. It'd say
we travelled at our own risk, and if we'd got into difficulties we must
get out of them on the same terms. Even if otherwise, just think of the
red tape! No. My plan is the best, and, I'm afraid, the only one."

For a few moments both men sat puffing at their pipes in silence.
Gerard felt his pulses beginning to throb already with the excitement
and prospect of such an adventure. Then he said--

"It won't do, Dawes; I'm not going to leave you. We must go out
together or not at all."

"That's no sort of good sense," was the other's rejoinder. "I shall be
all right here, and it's the only way out of the difficulty."

"But, on your own showing, they will take it out of you," urged Gerard,
speaking quickly. "Didn't you give that as a reason just now