n, Watcher-by-Night, is wise. Why should we waste our
strength on stone walls, of which none know the number or can find the
gates in the darkness, and thereby leave our skulls to be set up as
ornaments on the fences of the accursed Amakoba? Let us draw the Amakoba
out into the pass of the mountains, where they have no walls to protect
them, and there fall on them when they are bewildered and settle
the matter with them man to man. As for the women and children, with
Macumazahn I say let them go; afterwards, perhaps, they will become
_our_ women and children."

"Aye," answered the Amangwane, "the plan of the white Inkoosi is good;
he is clever as a weasel; we will have his plan and no other."

So Saduko was overruled and my counsel adopted.

All that day we rested, lighting no fires and remaining still as the
dead in the dense bush. It was a very anxious day, for although the
place was so wild and lonely, there was always the fear lest we should
be discovered. It was true that we had travelled mostly by night in
small parties, to avoid leaving a spoor, and avoided all kraals; still,
some rumour of our approach might have reached the Amakoba, or a party
of hunters might stumble on us, or those who sought for lost cattle.

Indeed, something of this sort did happen, for about midday we heard a
footfall, and perceived the figure of a man, whom by his head-dress we
knew for an Amakoba, threading his way through the bush. Before he saw
us he was in our midst. For a moment he hesitated ere he turned to fly,
and that moment was his last, for three of the Amangwane leapt on him
silently as leopards leap upon a buck, and where he stood there he died.
Poor fellow! Evidently he had been on a visit to some witch-doctor, for
in his blanket we found medicine and love charms. This doctor cannot
have been one of the stamp of Zikali the Dwarf, I thought to myself;
at least, he had not warned him that he would never live to dose his
beloved with that foolish medicine.

Meanwhile a few of us who had the quickest eyes climbed trees, and
thence watched the town of Bangu and the valley that lay between us and
it. Soon we saw that so far, at any rate, Fortune was playing into our
hands, since herd after herd of kine were driven into the valley during
the afternoon and enclosed in the stock-kraals. Doubtless Bangu intended
on the morrow to make his half-yearly inspection of all the cattle of
the tribe, many of which were herded at a distanc