me
that we may clear it."

But here a fresh difficulty arose. None seemed eager to accompany him.
Although the discipline of a Zulu regiment on a war expedition is of
iron rigidity, there were mutterings of discontent at the bare idea.
The warriors had not come there to take up the quarrel of an unknown
white trader, but to exterminate the rebellions subjects of the king.
Having tasted its delights, they were burning once more for the mad
shock of battle, and with such a foe. They were not keen on falling out
of this for the sake of dislodging three or four spies from an elevated
position, nor were they eager to place themselves under the command of a
white man. The chief himself was but lukewarm in the matter, and it
seemed in danger of being abandoned.

"If no one will go with me I will go alone!" cried Gerard, in despair.
Then, as his glance fell upon a face in the ranks, he was inspired with
new hope. "Come now, Nkumbi-ka-zulu," he went on. "Are you not ready
to win the double gun? It is waiting for you. Are there none of your
friends who will go with you? We shall be back with the _impi_ long
before the fight is at an end."

The young warrior stepped forth. It was the dream of his life to
possess that double gun which he had so vainly tried to jockey out of
its owner. Now, by a strange turn of events, he might only hope to
possess it by saving the life of that owner.

"I am ready," he said, turning deferentially towards Sobuza for
permission.

Another and another stepped forward, friends and kinsmen of his.

"Nine of you. With yourself there will be ten. You must do the best
you can, Jeriji, for I can spare no more," said Sobuza impatiently. And
the pursuit was resumed.

Lying back from the hollow in a lateral spur, shut in by ironstone
cliffs, was a small kraal, and this place had been chosen by the
Igazipuza for their last stand. Hither all their women and cattle had
been sent, and here they were resolved to die--to die fighting hard.
And no better place could they have chosen than this grim _cul de sac_.
It would be impossible to surround them. Only when they had been driven
back step by step--forced against the very face of the iron cliff
itself, would the last man be exterminated.

Over this weird death-trap there towered a great cloud of dust, and the
rocks re-echoed the lowing and trampling of the cattle and the shouts of
their drivers, the shrill voices of women, and the squalling o