with him for some days and then let her go,
and thus she will be out of mischief. Meanwhile you and your
friends can depart untroubled by her fancies, and join the white
men who are near. Tomorrow you shall start."

"That is good," I said with a sigh of relief. Then an idea
struck me and I added, "I suppose no harm will come to Nombe, who
might be thought to know too much?"

"I hope not," he replied indifferently, "but that is a matter for
her Spirit to decide. Now go, Macumazahn, for I am weary."

I also was weary after my prolonged seclusion under that very hot
skin rug. For be it remembered I was not yet strong again, and
although this was not the real reason why I had stopped behind
when the others went to the plateau, I still grew easily tired.
My real reason was that of Nombe--that I thought they preferred
to be alone. I looked about me and saw with relief that Cetewayo
and every man of his retinue were really gone. They had not even
waited to eat the ox that had been killed for them, but had
carried off the meat with other provisions to their
sleeping-place outside the kloof. Having made sure of this I
went to my hut and loosed Lost that fortunately enough had been
unable to gnaw through the thick buffalo-hide riem with which I
had fastened him to the pole.

He greeted me with rapture as though we had been parted for
years. Had he belonged to Ulysses himself he could not have been
more joyful. When one is despondent and lonesome, how grateful
is the whole-hearted welcome of a dog which, we are sometimes
tempted to think, is the only creature that really cares for us
in the world. Every other living thing has side interests of its
own, but that of a dog is centred in its master, though it is
true that it also dreams affectionately of dinner and rabbits.

Then with Lost at my feet I sat outside the hut smoking and
waiting for the return of Anscombe and Heda. Presently I caught
sight of them in the gloaming. Their arms were around one
another, and in some remarkable way they had managed to dispose
their heads, forgetting that the sky was still light behind them,
in such fashion that it was difficult to tell one from the other.
I reflected that it was a good thing that at last we were
escaping from this confounded kloof and country for one where
they could marry and make an end, and became afflicted with a
sneezing fit.

Heda asked where Nombe was and why supper was not ready, for
Nombe played