only
half bewitched, but they thought that even so one or more of them would
pay the penalty of death for this rash crime.

It chanced that this happened, for, as I have said, two of the poor
fellows did die, though not, I think, owing to the magical properties
of the waters of the Luba. This is how African superstitions are kept
alive. Sooner or later some saying of the sort fulfils itself and then
the instance is remembered and handed down for generations, while
other instances in which nothing out of the common has occurred are not
heeded, or are forgotten.

This decision on the part of those stupid Zulus put us in an awkward
fix, since it was impossible for us to carry over all our baggage and
ammunition without help. Therefore glad was I when before dawn on the
fifth morning the nocturnal Hans crept into the wagon, in the after
part of which Ragnall and I were sleeping, and informed us that he heard
men's voices on the farther side of the river, though how he could hear
anything above that roar of water passed my comprehension.

At the first break of dawn again we climbed the tallest of the "Doctor"
rocks and stared into the mist. At length it rolled away and there on
the farther side of the river I saw quite a hundred men who by their
dress and spears I knew to be Mazitu. They saw me also and raising a
cheer, dashed into the water, groups of them holding each other round
the middle to prevent their being swept away. Thereupon our silly Zulus
seized their spears and formed up upon the bank. I slid down the steep
side of the "Great Doctor" and ran forward, calling out that these were
friends who came.

"Friends or foes," answered their captain sullenly, "it is a pity that
we should walk so far and not have a fight with those Mazitu dogs."

Well, I drove them off to a distance, not knowing what might happen if
the two peoples met, and then went down to the bank. By now the Mazitu
were near, and to my delight at the head of them I perceived no other
than my old friend, their chief general, Babemba, a one-eyed man with
whom Hans and I had shared many adventures. Through the water he plunged
with great bounds and reaching the shore, greeted me literally with
rapture.

"O Macumazana," he said, "little did I hope that ever again I should
look upon your face. Welcome to you, a thousand welcomes, and to you
too, Light-in-Darkness, Lord-of-the-Fire, Cunning-one whose wit saved us
in the battle of the Gate. But where i