cuse my saying so. Now,
every man Jack of your Matabele Police imagines himself a bigger man
than the old indunas of the country before whom he used to shake in his
shoes. And the Matabele won't stand that for ever."

"Oh, come now, Ames, you're putting things rather strong. Besides, we
seem to have heard all that before."

"And so these fellows can swagger around in their uniforms and put on
side, and crow over the old indunas, and bully the crowd at large, and--
what is worse, use their position to pay off old grudges. Which is just
what seems to have been done in the present case."

"The devil it does! Who says so?"

"The man who has been talking the most is Samvu, the brother of Madula,"
went on Ames. "He is here to complain of your men. They appear to have
acted in a pretty high-handed way at Madula's, and the wonder is they
didn't come to blows. You remember what the orders were to Nanzicele?
We gave them conjointly."

"Yes. He was to remind Madula that more cattle were due from him, and
that it is time they were sent in."

"Precisely. Well, what do you think the fellow has been doing? He sent
half his patrol to drive off all Madula's cattle, while he kept the
people of the kraal busy with _indaba_. Even then he seems to have
cheeked the chief and played Harry all round. The wonder is he didn't
bring on a fight. As it was, the whole kraal turned out, and simply ran
all the cattle back again."

"If he did that, of course he exceeded his orders," allowed Inglefield,
albeit somewhat grudgingly. "But how do we know these chaps are not
lying?"

"I don't think they are, but of course we must have a full
investigation. We can begin it this afternoon. It's dinner-time now.
Come in and have a bite, Inglefield."

"No thanks, old chap. I've got something going at the camp, and my cook
will get careless if I keep disappointing him. I'll look round in an
hour or so. But--I say. Why the deuce should Nanzicele--oh, dash it, I
can't get round these infernal clicks!--why should he have played the
fool at that particular kraal?"

"There comes in what I was saying before about paying off old grudges.
He had a squabble about a girl at that very kraal a little while back,
and now sees his chance. Well, so long. We'll go thoroughly into the
thing."

The police officer mounted his horse and rode away in the direction of
the camp, and John Ames, having said a few words to the squatting
Matabele, dism