, if he is still living."

"Nay, Slaughterer, do not name me," said the Wolf, "for together we live
or die."

"So let it be, Galazi. Then choose you some other man and try this road
no more, for if we cannot pass it none can, but seek food and sit down
here till those jackals bolt; then be ready. Farewell, my children!"

"Farewell, father," they answered, "go warily, lest we be left like
cattle without a herdsman, wandering and desolate."

Then Umslopogaas crept into the hole, taking no shield, but holding
Groan-Maker before him, and at his heels crept Galazi. When he had
covered the length of six spears he stretched out his hand, and, as he
trusted to do, he found the feet of that man who had gone before and
died in the place. Then Umslopogaas the way did this: he put his head
beneath the dead man's legs and thrust himself onward till all the body
was on his back, and there he held it with one hand, gripping its two
wrists in his hand. Then he crawled forward a little space and saw that
he was coming to the inner mouth of the burrow, but that the shadow was
deep there because of a great mass of rock which lay before the burrow
shutting out the light. "This is well for me," thought Umslopogaas, "for
now they will not know the dead from the living. I may yet look upon the
sun again." Now he heard the Halakazi soldiers talking without.

"The Zulu rats do not love this run," said one, "they fear the
rat-catcher's stick. This is good sport," and a man laughed.

Then Umslopogaas pushed himself forward as swiftly as he could, holding
the dead man on his back, and suddenly came out of the hole into the
open place in the dark shadow of the great rock.

"By the Lily," cried a soldier, "here's a third! Take this, Zulu rat!"
And he struck the dead man heavily with a kerrie. "And that!" cried
another, driving his spear through him so that it pricked Umslopogaas
beneath. "And that! and this! and that!" said others, as they smote and
stabbed.

Now Umslopogaas groaned heavily in the deep shadow and lay still. "No
need to waste more blows," said the man who had struck first. "This one
will never go back to Zululand, and I think that few will care to follow
him. Let us make an end: run, some of you, and find stones to stop the
burrow, for now the sport is done."

He turned as he spoke and so did the others, and this was what the
Slaughter sought. With a swift movement, he freed himself from the dead
man and sprang to his feet.