live than dead--for the
present. I will go in and talk with them pleasantly and look at their
horse races. But it is afterwards, when they all collect to receive
rewards for those who have won in races--then it is that our time will
have come. They will all be collected together, having no thought but
for who is to receive rewards. And they will all be looking one way,
and shouting, and--all throwing up their hats. _Whau_! All throwing up
their hats!"

A hum of expectant eagerness ran through the listeners. Could the--
never so justified--eavesdropper have seen through that wall of grass
and rough plaster he would have seen a tense, a bloodthirsty look on
each set, thrust-forward face, hanging on what was to follow.

"Ha! All throwing up their hats. And I, Qubani, will be throwing up
mine."

"'M--'m!" hummed the listeners.

"Yet, how shall we see that, when so many hats are being thrown up?"
asked Zwabeka's voice.

"This way. I have a red cap, given me by one of them when last I was at
Buluwayo. It will I throw up. The Amakiwa do not wear red caps."

"But--if the time is not ripe?" struck in a voice which the listener
thought not to have heard yet. "If, by chance, the Amakiwa are
suspicious and are all armed--what then?"

"_Au_! That is not likely. But I will wear two caps--a white one under
the red. If the time is ripe, the red one goes into the air--then those
who are elsewhere will receive news by swift signal that all the Amakiwa
in their part of the country be at once and immediately slain. If I see
that the time is not yet, then I throw the white signal in the air. So
must we sit still and deliberate further. It is the red signal or the
white."

"The red signal or the white!" echoed his hearers. "Ah! ah! The red
signal or the white!"

"That is understood," said Qubani. "The red signal or the white."

"_Eh! he! Siyavuma_!" hummed the others.

Now the listener thought to detect signs that the deliberations had come
to an end, and if so, some, at any rate, of those within would be coming
forth. Two courses suggested themselves to him. He lay between the hut
and the outer stockade. The chances were that anyone coming out would
take the other side, between the huts, to make their way to their
respective quarters. But chances, unless one is driven to take them,
are uncertain props, wherefore he decided to beat a retreat while there
was yet time. Accordingly he crawled backwards