e lane was left in the
middle. They must get through before it shut.

"Come," she gasped, striking the horse with her heel and the butt of her
gun, and jerking at its mouth.

Her father saw also, and did likewise, so that the beasts broke into a
gallop. Now from the point of each wing sprang out thin lines of men,
looking like great horns, or nippers, whose business it was to meet and
cut them off. Could they pass between them before they did meet? That
was the question, and upon its answer it depended whether or no they had
another three minutes to live. To think of mercy at the hands of these
bloodthirsty brutes, after they had just killed one of their number
before their eyes, was absurd. It was true he had been shot in
self-defence; but what count would savages take of that, or of the
fact that they were but harmless travellers? White people were not very
popular with the Matabele just then, as they knew well; also, their
murder in this remote place, with not another of their race within a
couple of hundred miles, would never even be reported, and much less
avenged. It was as safe as any crime could possibly be.

All this passed through their minds as they galloped towards those
closing points. Oh! the horror of it! But two hundred yards to cover,
and their fate would be decided. Either they would have escaped at least
for a while, or time would be done with them; or, a third alternative,
they might be taken prisoners, in all probability a yet more dreadful
doom. Even then Benita determined that if she could help it this should
not befall her. She had the rifle and the revolver that Jacob Meyer had
given her. Surely she would be able to find a moment to use one or the
other upon herself. She clenched her teeth, and struck the horse again
and again, so that now they flew along. The Matabele soldiers were
running their best to catch them, and if these had been given but
five seconds of start, caught they must have been. But that short five
seconds saved their lives.

When they rushed through them the foremost men of the nippers were not
more than twenty yards apart. Seeing that they had passed, these halted
and hurled a shower of spears after them. One flashed by Benita's cheek,
a line of light; she felt the wind of it. Another cut her dress, and
a third struck her father's horse in the near hind leg just above the
knee-joint, remaining fast there for a stride or two, and then falling
to the ground. At first the b