ons of his messengers. Ah! they little
knew, those poor fools--they little knew!

Time went by, and, secure behind our stone walls, we felt as though we
should like to go to sleep. But we dared not do this--at any rate, not
more than one of us at a time. We saw the people gathering, till it
seemed that we were beleaguered by the whole Bakoni nation. To those
who had first assailed us came other companies of warriors; and behind
them women and children, all gazing eagerly at the "two black baboons,"
as they called us, in a trap. Then a new move seemed to be taking place
among them. A number of people were staggering under huge loads of
reeds and dry bushes. We started up eagerly, for now we saw their plan.
They intended to burn us out.

A wild yell of delight went up from the whole assembly as these loads of
combustibles were borne forward from all sides. We had no means of
stopping them. We had hurled back, generally with effect, nearly all
the assegais which had been thrown inside the walls; besides, even had
we not done so, the bodies of those who approached were so hidden by the
loads they bore or pushed before them that they were quite shielded.
Amid yells and shrieks of laughter the burdens were placed in a ring,
close up against the walls, while more were fetched. It seemed that we
were, indeed, as these dogs had said, like trapped rhinoceros.

The walls were of hard stone, and, of course, would not burn. But the
mass of that flaming, glowing stuff was so enormous that the heat and
smoke would be enough to smother us many times over. We took counsel
together, and thought hard.

As I said before, _Nkose_, the construction of these walls was that of
an inclosure within an inclosure, even like the plan of our own kraals.
The centre space, ringed round by the outer wall, was large enough to
contain perhaps threescore men, not standing very close together; the
outer ring was only wide enough to allow one to stand at a time. There
was just a single chance of escape.

The outside wall was now surrounded by a high fence of dry stuff--higher
than a man's head; and, amid a roar of delight from the thousands who
were watching, we saw blue columns of smoke curling up from the circle
all round. At the same time red tongues of flame shot forth, crackling
shrilly as they licked among the dry thorns and grass. In a moment the
heat became unbearable, engirdled, as we were, within a ring of flame;
and the dense,