kraal.

"Keep heart," I said. "See, there is the kraal of Chaka."

"Yes, brother," she answered, "but what waits us there? Death is behind
us and before us--we are in the middle of death."

Presently we came to a path that ran to the kraal from the ford of the
Umfolozi. It was by it that the Impi had travelled. We followed the path
till at last we were but half an hour's journey from the kraal. Then
we looked back, and lo! there behind us were the pursuers--five of
them--one had drowned in crossing the river.

Again we ran, but now we were weak, and they gained upon us. Then once
more I thought of the dog. He was fierce and would tear any one on whom
I set him. I called him and told him what to do, though I knew that
it would be his death. He understood, and flew towards the soldiers
growling, his hair standing up on his spine. They tried to kill him with
spears and kerries, but he jumped round them, biting at them, and kept
them back. At last a man hit him, and he sprang up and seized the man by
the throat. There he clung, man and dog rolling over and over together,
till the end of it was that they both died. Ah! he was a dog! We do not
see such dogs nowadays. His father was a Boer hound, the first that came
into the country. That dog once killed a leopard all by himself. Well,
this was the end of Koos!

Meanwhile, we had been running. Now we were but three hundred paces from
the gate of the kraal, and there was something going on inside it; that
we could see from the noise and the dust. The four soldiers, leaving the
dead dog and the dying man, came after us swiftly. I saw that they must
catch us before we reached the gate, for now Baleka could go but slowly.
Then a thought came into my head. I had brought her here, I would save
her life if I could. Should she reach the kraal without me, Chaka would
not kill a girl who was so young and fair.

"Run on, Baleka! run on!" I said, dropping behind. Now she was almost
blind with weariness and terror, and, not seeing my purpose, staggered
towards the gate of the kraal. But I sat down on the veldt to get my
breath again, for I was about to fight four men till I was killed. My
heart beat and the blood drummed in my ears, but when they drew near and
I rose--the assegai in my hand--once more the red cloth seemed to go up
and down before my eyes, and all fear left me.

The men were running, two and two, with the length of a spear throw
between them. But of the first pair on