r. If the king sends his impis against you, then it will
be time to fight, O fool with little wit!"

Thus Zinita spoke to him, very roughly--for she always blurted out what
was in her mind, and Umslopogaas could not challenge her to battle. So
he must bear her talk as best he might, for it is often thus, my father,
that the greatest of men grow small enough in their own huts. Moreover,
he knew that it was because Zinita loved him that she spoke so bitterly.

Now on the third day all the fighting-men were gathered, and there might
have been two thousand of them, good men and brave. Then Umslopogaas
went out and spoke to them, telling them of this adventure, and Galazi
the Wolf was with him. They listened silently, and it was plain to see
that, as in the case of the headmen, some of them thought one thing and
some another. Then Galazi spoke to them briefly, telling them that he
knew the roads and the caves and the number of the Halakazi cattle; but
still they doubted. Thereon Umslopogaas added these words:--

"To-morrow, at the dawn, I, Bulalio, Holder of the Axe, Chief of the
People of the Axe, go up against the Halakazi, with Galazi the Wolf,
my brother. If but ten men follow us, yet we will go. Now, choose, you
soldiers! Let those come who will, and let those who will stop at home
with the women and the little children."

Now a great shout rose from every throat.

"We will go with you, Bulalio, to victory or death!"

So on the morrow they marched, and there was wailing among the women of
the People of the Axe. Only Zinita did not wail, but stood by in wrath,
foreboding evil; nor would she bid her lord farewell, yet when he was
gone she wept also.

Now Umslopogaas and his impi travelled fast and far, hungering and
thirsting, till at length they came to the land of the Umswazi, and
after a while entered the territory of the Halakazi by a high and narrow
pass. The fear of Galazi the Wolf was that they should find this pass
held, for though they had harmed none in the kraals as they went, and
taken only enough cattle to feed themselves, yet he knew well that
messengers had sped by day and night to warn the people of the Halakazi.
But they found no man in the pass, and on the other side of it they
rested, for the night was far spent. At dawn Umslopogaas looked out
over the wide plains beyond, and Galazi showed him a long low hill, two
hours' march away.

"There, my brother," he said, "lies the head kraal of the Hala