mmandoes had been recalled, but the ashes of
their camp fires were still grey among the bracken. I fell in with a
police patrol and was taken by them to a spot on the Upper Letaba, some
miles west of the camp, where we found Arcoll at late breakfast. I had
resolved to take him into my confidence, so I told him the full tale of
my night's adventure. He was very severe with me, I remember, for my
daft-like ride, but his severity relaxed before I had done with my
story.

The telling brought back the scene to me, and I shivered at the picture
of the cave with the morning breaking through the veil of water and
Laputa in his death throes. Arcoll did not speak for some time.

'So he is dead,' he said at last, half-whispering to himself. 'Well, he
was a king, and died like a king. Our job now is simple, for there is
none of his breed left in Africa.'

Then I told him of the treasure.

'It belongs to you, Davie,' he said, 'and we must see that you get it.
This is going to be a long war, but if we survive to the end you will
be a rich man.'

'But in the meantime?' I asked. 'Supposing other Kaffirs hear of it,
and come back and make a bridge over the gorge? They may be doing it
now.'

'I'll put a guard on it,' he said, jumping up briskly. 'It's maybe not
a soldier's job, but you've saved this country, Davie, and I'm going to
make sure that you have your reward.'

After that I went with Arcoll to Inanda's Kraal. I am not going to
tell the story of that performance, for it occupies no less than two
chapters in Mr Upton's book. He makes one or two blunders, for he
spells my name with an 'o,' and he says we walked out of the camp on
our perilous mission 'with faces white and set as a Crusader's.' That
is certainly not true, for in the first place nobody saw us go who
could judge how we looked, and in the second place we were both smoking
and feeling quite cheerful. At home they made a great fuss about it,
and started a newspaper cry about the Victoria Cross, but the danger
was not so terrible after all, and in any case it was nothing to what I
had been through in the past week.

I take credit to myself for suggesting the idea. By this time we had
the army in the kraal at our mercy. Laputa not having returned, they
had no plans. It had been the original intention to start for the
Olifants on the following day, so there was a scanty supply of food.
Besides, there were the makings of a pretty quarrel between Umb