and
through it emerged about a dozen Zulu warriors, all of them
ringed men, who instantly surrounded me, seated there upon the
ground.

I looked at them and they looked at me for quite a long while,
since following my usual rule, I determined not to be the first
to speak. Moreover, if they meant to kill me there was no use in
speaking. At length their leader, an elderly man with thin legs,
a large stomach and a rather pleasant countenance, saluted
politely, saying--

"Good morning, O Macumazahn."

"Good morning, O Captain, whose name and business I do not know,"
I answered.

"The winds know the mountain on which they blow, but the mountain
does not know the winds which it cannot see," he remarked with
poetical courtesy; a Zulu way of saying that more people are
acquainted with Tom Fool than Tom Fool is aware of.

"Perhaps, Captain; yet the mountain can feel the winds," and I
might have added, smell them, for the Kloof was close and these
Kaffirs had not recently bathed.

"I am named Goza and come on an errand from the king, O
Macumazahn."

"Indeed, Goza, and is your errand to cut my throat?"

"Not at present, Macumazahn, that is, unless you refuse to do
what the king wishes."

"And what does the king wish, Goza?"

"He wishes, Macumazahn, that you, his friend, should visit him."

"Which is just what I was on my way to do, Goza." (This was not
true, but it didn't matter, for, if a lie, in the words of the
schoolgirl's definition, is an abomination to the Lord, it is a
very present help in time of trouble.) "After we have eaten I
and my friends will accompany you to the king's kraal at Ulundi."

"Not so, Macumazahn. The king said nothing about your friends,
of whom I do not think he has ever heard any more than we have.
Moreover, if your friends are white, you will do well not to
mention them, since the order is that all white people in
Zululand who have not come here by the king's desire, are to be
killed at once, except yourself, Macumazahn."

"Is it so, Goza? Well, as you will have understood, I am quite
alone here and have no friends. Only I did not wish to travel so
early."

"Of course we understand that you are quite alone and have no
friends, is it not so, my brothers?"

"Yes, yes, we understand," they exclaimed in chorus, one of them
adding, "and shall so report to the King."

"What kind of blankets do you like; the plain grey ones or the
white ones with the blue stripes?" I asked, d