aid impressively. "Supposing I were to tell you
that this yarn of yours is all a cock-and-bull lie, and that you've come
here to lead us into a trap? And supposing I were to tell half a dozen
men here to shoot you when I count twenty? What then?"

All eyes were fixed upon the native's face, as the leader left off
speaking. But not a muscle therein quailed. For a minute he did not
reply. Then he shook his head, with a wholly incredulous laugh.

"Nay, _Baas_," he said. "_Baas_ is joking."

"Well, you must be telling the truth or else you must be the pluckiest
nigger in all Kafirland to come here and play the fool with us," said
Shelton. "What do you say, boys? Shall we trust to what this fellow
tells us and make a dash for the spoil?"

An acclamation of universal assent hailed this proposal. In an
incredibly short space of time the horses were saddled, and with the
native in their midst the whole party moved down in the direction of the
bush.

"In here, _Baas_," said the guide, piloting them down a narrow path
where they were obliged to maintain single file. On either side was a
dark, dense jungle, the plumed euphorbia rising high overhead above the
bush. The path, rough and widening, seemed to lead down and down--no
one knew whither. The guide was not suffered to lead the way, but was
kept near the head of the party, those immediately around him being
prepared to shoot him dead at the first sign of treachery.

"Damned fools we must be to come into a place like this on the bare word
of a black fellow," grunted Carhayes. "I think the cuss means square
and above board--but going down here in this picnicking way--it doesn't
seem right somehow."

But they were in for it now, and soon the path opened, and before and
beneath them lay a network of kloofs covered with a thick, jungly scrub,
here and there a rugged _krantz_ shooting up from the waves of foliage.
Not a sound was heard as they filed on in the cloudless stillness of the
sunny forenoon. Even the birds were silent in that great lonely valley.

"There," whispered the Bomvana, when they had gone some distance
further. "There is the cattle."

He pointed to a long, winding kloof whose entrance was commanded by
cliffs on either side. Looking cautiously around, they entered this.
Soon they could hear the sound of voices.

"By George! We are on them now," said Shelton in a low tone. "But,
keep cool, men--only keep cool!"

They passed a large kr