nging on a
war. Kenrick, you stood beside me when we found _them_--you, too, saw
them. Have you so soon forgotten?"

"Forgotten? It would take more than a lifetime to forget that. Still,
for your own sake do not do this. I believe you yourself will regret it
afterwards. And then the law may call it murder. What then?"

"There isn't a jury in the land that would convict me," she said. "They
would call it an act of justice. And it will be. I have thought it all
out, you see."

What was I to answer? She was very likely right in her surmise. I
remembered Brian's words, uttered the day after my arrival here--words
to that very effect.

"Even then it will wear an ugly look," I persisted. "We bring this man
a considerable distance across country--the two of us--then shoot him in
cold blood."

"Has your blood cooled then, Kenrick?" she said. "Mine hasn't, nor will
it, until I see this murderer lying dead beside those he has killed."

"Understand, I am not pleading for his life," I went on, "only that you
should not be his executioner. Besides, what if he is the wrong man?
What if he should be speaking the truth after all when he says he knows
nothing about it?"

"A chief is responsible for the acts of his followers, even under their
own law. And he was not speaking the truth; he was lying. I know these
people better than you do, Kenrick. If he knew nothing of--of--what has
happened, do you think I could have frightened him into going with us?
Not for a moment. He knew all about it, and encouraged it, if he did
not actually instigate it. He is the principal murderer; afterwards I
shall find out the others."

"I was wrong in something I said just now," she went on while I was
thinking what next to urge. "I told you I had thought the matter all
out. Well, I was wrong. There was one side of it that escaped me."

"And that is?" I said eagerly, catching at a possible straw.

"Yourself."

"Me?"

"Yes. I don't want you to suffer for this in any way. You have helped
me this far, Kenrick. Now go--and leave the rest to me. You are not
supposed to know what I am about to do; and I'll take care it shall
never leak out that you did. Go back to the house and wait for me."

"That's so likely, isn't it?" I answered. "Of course, under any
circumstances I'd be sure to slink off and leave you in the middle of
the veldt at night, surrounded by Kuliso's cut-throats, watching an
opportunity to revenge t