ooni and
some of the north-country chiefs, and I verily believe that if we had
held them tight there for a week they would have destroyed each other
in faction fights. In any case, in a little they would have grown
desperate and tried to rush the approaches on the north and south.
Then we must either have used the guns on them, which would have meant
a great slaughter, or let them go to do mischief elsewhere. Arcoll was
a merciful man who had no love for butchery; besides, he was a
statesman with an eye to the future of the country after the war. But
it was his duty to isolate Laputa's army, and at all costs, it must be
prevented from joining any of the concentrations in the south.

Then I proposed to him to do as Rhodes did in the Matoppos, and go and
talk to them. By this time, I argued, the influence of Laputa must
have sunk, and the fervour of the purification be half-forgotten. The
army had little food and no leader. The rank and file had never been
fanatical, and the chiefs and indunas must now be inclined to sober
reflections. But once blood was shed the lust of blood would possess
them. Our only chance was to strike when their minds were perplexed and
undecided.

Arcoll did all the arranging. He had a message sent to the chiefs
inviting them to an indaba, and presently word was brought back that an
indaba was called for the next day at noon. That same night we heard
that Umbooni and about twenty of his men had managed to evade our ring
of scouts and got clear away to the south. This was all to our
advantage, as it removed from the coming indaba the most irreconcilable
of the chiefs.

That indaba was a queer business. Arcoll and I left our escort at the
foot of a ravine, and entered the kraal by the same road as I had left
it. It was a very bright, hot winter's day, and try as I might, I
could not bring myself to think of any danger. I believed that in this
way most temerarious deeds are done; the doer has become insensible to
danger, and his imagination is clouded with some engrossing purpose.
The first sentries received us gloomily enough, and closed behind us as
they had done when Machudi's men haled me thither. Then the job became
eerie, for we had to walk across a green flat with thousands of eyes
watching us. By-and-by we came to the merula tree opposite the kyas,
and there we found a ring of chiefs, sitting with cocked rifles on
their knees.

We were armed with pistols, and the first thin