roll of the high veld. I longed miserably for the places where white
men were thronged together in dorps and cities. As we gazed a curious
sound struck our ears. It seemed to begin far up in the north--a low
roll like the combing of breakers on the sand. Then it grew louder and
travelled nearer--a roll, with sudden spasms of harsher sound in it;
reminding me of the churning in one of the pot-holes of Kirkcaple
cliffs. Presently it grew softer again as the sound passed south, but
new notes were always emerging. The echo came sometimes, as it were,
from stark rock, and sometimes from the deep gloom of the forests. I
have never heard an eerier sound. Neither natural nor human it seemed,
but the voice of that world between which is hid from man's sight and
hearing.

Mr Wardlaw clutched my arm, and in that moment I guessed the
explanation. The native drums were beating, passing some message from
the far north down the line of the Berg, where the locations were
thickest, to the great black population of the south.

'But that means war,' Mr Wardlaw cried.

'It means nothing of the kind,' I said shortly. 'It's their way of
sending news. It's as likely to be some change in the weather or an
outbreak of cattle disease.'

When we got home I found Japp with a face like grey paper. 'Did you
hear the drums?'he asked.

'Yes,' I said shortly. 'What about them?'

'God forgive you for an ignorant Britisher,' he almost shouted. 'You
may hear drums any night, but a drumming like that I only once heard
before. It was in '79 in the 'Zeti valley. Do you know what happened
next day? Cetewayo's impis came over the hills, and in an hour there
wasn't a living white soul in the glen. Two men escaped, and one of
them was called Peter Japp.'

'We are in God's hands then, and must wait on His will,' I said
solemnly.

There was no more sleep for Wardlaw and myself that night. We made the
best barricade we could of the windows, loaded all our weapons, and
trusted to Colin to give us early news. Before supper I went over to
get Japp to join us, but found that that worthy had sought help from
his old protector, the bottle, and was already sound asleep with both
door and window open.

I had made up my mind that death was certain, and yet my heart belied
my conviction, and I could not feel the appropriate mood. If anything
I was more cheerful since I had heard the drums. It was clearly now
beyond the power of me or any man to s