hat would I have done with that
horrible fiend of an animal but for you? I should have been torn to
pieces."

"Strange, too, how it got here. I know the sort of beast. It in a kind
of mongrel hyaena--Lupiswana, the natives call it. Ah! Now I begin to
see."

This as if a sudden idea had struck him. But again he repeated his
request that she should tell him her experiences. And this she did--
from the murder of the Hollingworths right on.

"And so you were coming to me for refuge?" he said, for she had made no
secret of that part of it either. "It was well indeed you did not, for
I only escaped through the fidelity of my own servant. I will tell you
all about it another time. I must take care of you until we fall in
with a patrol. We shall have to keep closely in hiding, you know. I am
only a fugitive like yourself. The whole country is up in arms, but it
is only a question of time and--"

A bullet hummed over the speaker's head, very near, simultaneously with
the crash of a firearm, discharged from the entrance of the enclosure,
where a small lean native stood already inserting another cartridge in
the breach of his smoking rifle. But John Ames was upon him with a
tiger spring, just in time to strike up the barrel and send the bullet
humming into space.

"No, no! You don't go like that," he said in Sindabele, gripping the
other's wrists. The savage, small and thin, was no match for the tall
muscular white man; yet even he was less puny than he appeared and was
striving for an opportunity to slide, eel-like, from that grasp, and
make good his escape. "_Gahle, gahle_! or I will break your wrists."

Then the native gave in, whining that Jonemi was his father, and he shot
at him in mistake, seeing him in his kraal. He had retired there in
peace, in order to keep out of all the trouble that was being made.

"Yes; thou knowest me, and I know thee, Shiminya," was the answer. "In
the mean time I will take thy rifle--which belongs to the Government--
and cartridges. That's it. Now, go and sit over there, and if thou
movest I will shoot thee dead, for I can shoot better than thou."

The discomfited sorcerer, now the odds were against him, did as he was
told, turning the while to Nidia and adjuring her to speak for him. His
was the kraal that had taken her in. He had housed and fed her. This
very day he had intended to take her to Sikumbutana. He had gone forth
to see that the way was clear so that