ce had readily
consented.

"Yet consider, Ndabezita,"[2] he had said, "is it well to teach them
reliance on any weapon rather than the broad spear? For had your army
possessed fire-weapons, never would it have eaten up our camp out
yonder. It would have spent all its time and energy shooting, and that
to little purpose. It would have had time to think, and then the
warriors would have brought but half a heart to the last fierce charge."

"There is much in what you say, Nyonyoba," replied the king; "yet, I
would try the experiment."

So the indunas were required to select the men, and about three hundred
were organized, and Laurence, having spent much care in their
instruction, soon turned out a very fair corps of sharp-shooters. No
scruple had he in thus increasing the fighting strength of this already
fierce and formidable fighting race, to which he had taken a great
liking. He even began to contemplate the contingency of ending his life
among them, for of any return to civilization there seemed not the
remotest prospect; and, indeed, rather than return without the wealth
for which he had risked so much, he preferred not to return at all.

Even the memory of Lilith brought with it pain rather than solace. After
all this time--years indeed, now--would not his memory have faded? The
life he had led tended to foster such memory in himself, but with her it
was otherwise. All the conditions of her daily life tended rather to dim
it. That sweet, short, passionate episode had been all entrancing while
it lasted; yet was it not counterpoised by the certainty that with women
of her temperament such episodes are but episodes? All the bitter side
of his philosophy cried aloud in the affirmative.

He had now been several months among the Ba-gcatya; and had long since
ceased to feel any misgiving as to his personal safety at their hands.
But his sense of security was destined to receive a rude shock, and it
came about in this way.

Returning one day from a hunt, at some distance from Imvungayo, he had
marched on ahead of his companions, and, the afternoon being hot, had
lain down in the shade of a cluster of trees for a brief nap. From this
the buzz of muttering voices awakened him.

At first he paid no attention, reckoning that the remainder of the party
had come up. But soon a remark which was let fall started him very wide
awake indeed, and at the same time he recognized that the voices were
not those of his present comp