Haviland now, and carried him through in triumph. Young as he was--well
under thirty--he had already begun to make something of a name for
himself as a daring and successful exploring naturalist.

He had kept in touch with Mr Sefton, as much as a correspondence of the
few-and-far-between order could so be called, and from time to time
obtained the latest news about Saint Kirwin's. Among other items was
one to the effect that after his own departure the Zulu boy, Anthony--
otherwise Mpukuza--had turned out badly, had become so intractable and
such a power for mischief that the missionary who had placed him there
had been invited to remove him. This was done, and they had lost sight
of him. Probably he had returned to his own land and reverted to
savagery; and this, Haviland thought, was very likely the case. Yet he
himself had been in Zululand, and had made frequent inquiries with
regard to Mpukuza, but could obtain no satisfactory information, even in
the locality where the boy was said to hail from. It was no uncommon
thing for missionaries to take away their children and place them in
schools, declared the inhabitants, and one case more or less was not
sufficiently noteworthy to remain in their recollection. Nor did they
know any such name as Mpukuza, and in the ups and downs of a somewhat
struggling and busy life the matter faded from Haviland's mind as well.

As time went on the injured man, in spite of the steamy heat and a
drained system, had recovered so as almost to regain his former
strength; but, before this, the information he had given to Haviland and
the doctor about himself had caused a change in their plans. Briefly,
it amounted to this. His expedition, consisting of himself and a German
botanist, together with a number of porters, had been surprised at
daybreak by a party of Arabs and negroes who he had every reason to
believe constituted a gang of Rumaliza's slave-hunters. So sudden had
been the attack that the whole party was completely overpowered. His
German comrade was shot dead at his side, and he himself got a cut on
the head with a scimitar which nearly put an end to his days, together
with a spear thrust in the shoulder. He had a distinct recollection of
shooting two of the assailants with his revolver as he broke through
them to run, and then for the whole day some of them had chased him. He
had been wounded again by a spear, thrown by one who had out-distanced
the others, but he h