the battle will in a manner
be drawn, for the darkness gathers, and the regiments will not
be able to follow and slay!' -- and he shook his head sadly.
'But,' he added, 'I do not think that they will fight again.
We have fed them with too strong a meat. Ah! it is well to
have lived! At last I have seen a fight worth seeing.'

By this time we were on our way again, and as we went side by
side I told him what our mission was, and how that, if it failed,
all the lives that had been lost that day would have been lost
in vain.

'Ah!' he said, 'nigh on a hundred miles and no horses but these,
and to be there before the dawn! Well -- away! away! man can
but try, Macumazahn; and mayhap we shall be there in time to
split that old "witch-finder's" [Agon's] skull for him. Once
he wanted to burn us, the old "rain-maker", did he? And now
he would set a snare for my mother [Nyleptha], would he? Good!
So sure as my name is the name of the Woodpecker, so surely,
be my mother alive or dead, will I split him to the beard. Ay,
by T'Chaka's head I swear it!' and he shook Inkosi-kaas as he
galloped. By now the darkness was closing in, but fortunately
there would be a moon later, and the road was good.

On we sped through the twilight, the two splendid horses we bestrode
had got their wind by this, and were sweeping along with a wide
steady stride that neither failed nor varied for mile upon mile.
Down the side of slopes we galloped, across wide vales that
stretched to the foot of far-off hills. Nearer and nearer grew
the blue hills; now we were travelling up their steeps, and now
we were over and passing towards others that sprang up like visions
in the far, faint distance beyond.

On, never pausing or drawing rein, through the perfect quiet
of the night, that was set like a song to the falling music of
our horses' hoofs; on, past deserted villages, where only some
forgotten starving dog howled a melancholy welcome; on, past
lonely moated dwellings; on, through the white patchy moonlight,
that lay coldly upon the wide bosom of the earth, as though there
was no warmth in it; on, knee to knee, for hour after hour!

We spake not, but bent us forward on the necks of those two glorious
horses, and listened to their deep, long-drawn breaths as they
filled their great lungs, and to the regular unfaltering ring
of their round hoofs. Grim and black indeed did old Umslopogaas
look beside me, mounted upon the great white horse, like