the brother Kings of Zululand? _Whau_! So I dropped quietly
behind a bush to wait until the party were out of hearing. But before
it was so I could hear Mhlangana talking to the warriors; but his words
were few, and their tones were even and showed no suspicion that they
had been receiving their orders and plan of battle from Umzilikazi's
second fighting _induna_. And, indeed, as I thought of it, I laughed so
to myself that I was forced to sit down upon the ground and take snuff.
For these skilled warriors and captains had cried the _Bayete_ and bent
low and uttered _bonga_ to me, Untuswa, who was but yesterday, it
seemed, a boy in Zululand; and from me had they taken their orders,
which would be for their own destruction. _Whau! Nkose_! The world
may have contained more ridiculous positions, but somehow I hardly think
it possible.

"_Hamba gahle_, Mhlangana! _Hambani gahle_, warriors of Dingane!" I
murmured in scornful farewell.

It did not take me long to reach the entrance of the pass. The wizard
beast was no longer there, but even had a hundred such been waiting to
bar my way, they would have delayed me no longer than the time it would
take to fight my way through them. No fears had I now of ghosts, or
shapes of _tagati_, or any such thing. All such fears had disappeared
in the face of this real peril which threatened us as a nation. I
laughed at such fears as I sped through that grim pass, its gloomy
depths rendered still blacker by the bright moon rays--for the moon was
light again now--striking upon the tall cliffs high overhead. And I
could hear stones falling among the rocks as though ghosts were at play,
and weird wailing voices with shrill, sharp screams of fear, or savage
snarls, and indeed, many sounds issuing from the shadows; but of such I
took no heed--but, indeed, nothing--neither ghosts nor animals--could, I
think, have a wilder, fiercer appearance than mine, as, with head bent
forward, and gripping my shield and weapons, I sped through that grim,
black defile which was at one moment in shadow, then in moonlight,
bearing with me that which was of all things the most portentous--the
fate of a nation.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

THE MUSTER.

Never before, _Nkose_--not even in the days when I was young, and for my
swiftness and endurance was chosen by Umzilikazi as his chief runner--
did I cover the ground as I did that night, wherefore the night was not
very far spent when I reached