t of fashion without the "word" of the chief.
He glanced towards the kraal.

So too, we may be sure, did Dawes, with well-concealed, but infinitely
greater anxiety. Heads could be seen clustering at the palisades, but
still no armed force issued from the gates. What could it mean?

"Trek!" he cried, when the inspanning was completed.

"Trek--trek!" echoed the drivers, and the whips cracked to the
accompaniment of a running gamut of the names of the horned members of
the span. The oxen plunged forward to the yokes, and the great vehicles
rolled heavily from their standing place of many weeks.

"_Whau_, Jandosi!" said Sonkwana. "If you are leaving us, had I not
better carry your word of farewell to the chief?"

"Not so, Sonkwana. The road is not very familiar to me; besides, it is
fitting that a councillor of the chief should start me in safety on my
journey. There is safety on the road, but off it there is death," he
added darkly.

No shade of his meaning was lost upon his hearer, who made a virtue of
necessity, and accepted the position in such wise as though it had been
himself who had suggested it. Besides, the guard on the ridge was
strong. That had yet to be passed.

On moved the waggons; on moved the whole trek; deliberately making for
the exit of the hollow, the leader and driver of each in their places,
the three Swazis driving the cattle, for the sheep and goats had been
bartered away for cows and oxen; John Dawes walking beside the first
waggon, with Sonkwana. On--past the kraal with its great circle of
domed huts, but still no opposition. What did it mean? This silence,
this passiveness on the part of their hitherto aggressive and turbulent
gaolers was portentous.

It was a critical time for Dawes. Each moment he expected the air to be
rent with the ferocious war-cry, to hear the ground rumble beneath the
advance of running feet. How came it that he was allowed to march out
thus with colours flying and drums beating, to march out with all the
honours of war? The chief's councillor was in his power.

No sooner had he arrived at this conclusion than his sense of security
was rudely interrupted. They had gained the ridge, and now, with loud
and threatening shouts, the guards rushed down upon them.

"Order them back, Sonkwana. Order them back," said Dawes, in a quick
low tone. "To hesitate is death," he added.

The _induna_ glanced at Dawes. The latter's attitude, though apparently
c