ugged their shoulders. A white man might do
all kinds of things which were not lawful for themselves, wherefore they
did not think so very much of the act.

As they descended from the dreadful hill of slaughter, Dawes narrated
all that had befallen him since Gerard had left--his jeopardy in the
kraal, and how he had held Ingonyama at the point of his revolver, and
that within a few yards of his dancing warriors; then his bold attempt
at trekking away, the shooting of the councillor, Sonkwana, the fight,
and his own recapture. Nothing on earth had saved him from the
frightful fate to which he had been adjudged, but the fact of the
lateness of the hour--that and the arrival of the king's _impi_ at dawn.
It was too dark to put him to death that evening, and so he had spent
the night a close prisoner, with so many hours of silence and darkness
before him wherein to look forward to the terrible torture which awaited
him the next day.

Before dawn, however, had come tidings that the king's _impi_ was
marching upon the place, and he was dragged forth into the midst of the
whole horde of exasperated barbarians, clamouring like wolves for his
blood. But it had been decided to send emissaries to the king's
_induna_, and meanwhile he was taken to the summit of The Tooth.

"It's a mercy you turned up when you did, Ridgeley," he concluded.
"Five minutes later, and I'd have been kicking on that stake. Faugh!"

Then Gerard, in turn, related his own experiences. Dawes listened
attentively--gravely.

"It was a lucky day for both of us when you dragged that same Sobuza out
of the water, over the Umgeni Falls, and a lucky day for me when
Cetywayo took it into his head that it was time to suppress the
Igazipuza," he said seriously. "And it was a lucky day, too, for me the
day I ran against you knocking around Maritzburg, down on your luck; for
I don't stick at telling you, Ridgeley, that there's not a chap in forty
would have carried through that blockade-running business with the pluck
and dash and, above all, cool soundness of judgment you showed. And but
for that, where should I have been?"

Gerard reddened.

"Have you quite done making a speech, Dawes?" he said, laughing
confusedly. "Because, if so, let's talk about other things. What has
become of Sintoba, and the rest of them?"

Dawes's countenance fell.

"Hang me if I know," he said. "From the time they strapped me up I saw
no more of the people. The Swazis wer