en until quite recently more than half sceptical. Hazon had not
exaggerated its strength or prowess; no, not one whit. Of that he had
had abundant testimony. And Hazon himself? That strange individual, with
his marked-out personality, his cold-blooded ruthlessness and dauntless
courage? Well, his career was done. He lay in yonder circle, buried
beneath the slain, fighting to the last with fierce and consistent
valour. And Holmes? Even Laurence's hardened nature felt soft as he
thought of the comrade with whom he had been so closely linked during
these years of lawless and perilous enterprise. Well, they were gone,
and he was spared, but--to what end?

Then the spirit of the true adventurer reasserted itself. What lay
before him? What were the chances opening out to him in the dim, unknown
land whither they were speeding? "You will return wealthy, or--you will
not return at all," had been Hazon's words; and now their utterer would
utter no more words of any kind--but he, Laurence, would he return at
all? Would he?

And now, as they gained the edge of the great plain, the whole _impi_
raised a mighty battle-song, improvised to celebrate their triumph. Its
fierce strophes rolled like thunder along the ranks to the tread of
marching feet, and the multitude of hide shields dappled the plain far
and near, and the wavy lines of spear-points flashed and sparkled in the
sunlight.

And already over the wizard ring of the rock circle, piled with its
slain, immense clouds of vultures were wheeling beneath the blue vault
or swooping down upon their abundant feast. And the sun, flaming down
upon the torrid earth, seemed to shed a pitiless, brassy glare upon this
awful hecatomb, whose annals should ever remain unrecorded, swallowed up
in the grim and gloomy mysteries of that region of cruelty and of blood.

For many days thus they journeyed--making rapid, but not forced marches.
The aspect of the country, too, varied,--open, wavy plains, where
giraffe and buffalo were plentiful, and were hunted in great numbers for
the supply of the _impi_--then gloomy forest tracts, which seemed to
depress the Ba-gcatya, who hurried through them with all possible speed.
Broad rivers, too, swarming with crocodiles and hippopotami,--and these
the warriors would dash through in a mass, making the most hideous
yelling and splashing. But even the ground seemed gradually to ascend,
and certain white peaks, for some time visible on the far sky line, were