ya," declared the other.
"It may be we shall yet obtain large reward for delivering her back to
her own people in safety."

"Will the reward be of lead or of raw-hide?" said the sorcerer,
pleasantly. "And who will give it when there are no more whites in the
land?"

"No more whites in the land? That will be never," returned Nanzicele,
with a great laugh. "That is a good tale for the people, Umtwana
'Mlimo. But for thee and for me--_au_! we know. When Makiwa sets his
foot in any land, that foot is never taken up. It never has been, and
never will be."

Yes, decidedly in this case familiarity had bred contempt. The
ex-police sergeant had "got behind" the mysterious cult, through his
close association with one of its most influential exponents. Shiminya,
for his part, was aware of this, and viewed the situation with some
concern. Now he only said--

"Talk not so loudly, my son, lest ears grow on yonder bushes as well as
thorns. Now we will go home."

A look of relief came into Nidia's face as she knew, by the rising of
the two, that their conference was at an end. Then Nanzicele said--

"You go with we."

"Can we get there to-night?" she asked eagerly.

"We try. Where you from?"

Then she told him, and about the murder of the Hollingworths; and her
voice shook and her eyes filled. To her listener it was all a huge
joke. He knew she was tinder the impression that she was talking to a
loyal policeman. Then she began asking questions about John Ames. Was
he at home? and so forth. But Nanzicele suddenly became afflicted by a
strange density, an almost total ignorance of English.

For upwards of an hour they journeyed on, leaving the cultivated lands,
and striking into wilder country. Once a great snake rose in their
path, and went gliding away, hissing in wrath, and bright-plumaged birds
darted overhead. Vast thickets of "wacht-een-bietje" thorns lined the
river-bank, and these they skirted.

Nidia was becoming exhausted. So far excitement and nervous tension had
kept her up. Now she felt she could hold out no longer. Just then they
halted.

In front was the vast thicket. Shiminya, bending down, crawled into
what was nothing more nor less than a tunnel piercing the dense thorns
and just wide enough to admit the body of a man. There was something
sinister in its very aspect. Nidia drew back.

"Go after him. Go after that man," ordered Nanzicele, roughly.

"No. I don't like it. I ca