I glanced back and
saw Hans, the corn-cob pipe still in his mouth and the little rifle,
"Intombi," still at his shoulder. He had fired from the back of the
camel, I think for the first time that day, and whether by chance or
through good marksmanship, I do not know, had killed this man.

His sudden and unexpected end seemed to fill the Black Kendah with grief
and dismay. Halting in their charge they gathered round him, while a
fierce-looking middle-aged man, also adorned with much barbaric finery,
dismounted to examine him.

"That is Simba the King," said Marut, "and the slain one is his uncle,
Goru, the great general who brought him up from a babe."

"Then I wish I had another cartridge left for the nephew," I began and
stopped, for Hans was speaking to me.

"Good-bye, Baas," he said, "I must go, for I cannot load 'Intombi' on
the back of this beast. If you meet your reverend father the Predikant
before I do, tell him to make a nice place ready for me among the
fires."

Then before I could get out an answer, Hans dragged his camel round;
as I have said, it was quite uninjured. Urging it to a shambling gallop
with blows of the rifle stock, he departed at a great rate, not towards
the home of the Child but up the hill into a brake of giant grass
mingled with thorn trees that grew quite close at hand. Here with
startling suddenness both he and the camel vanished away.

If the Black Kendah saw him go, of which I am doubtful, for they all
seemed to be lost in consultation round their king and the dead general,
Goru, they made no attempt to follow him. Another possibility is that
they thought he was trying to lead them into some snare or ambush.

I do not know what they thought because I never heard them mention Hans
or the matter of his disappearance, if indeed they ever realized that
there was such a person. Curiously enough in the case of men who had
just shown themselves so brave, this last accident of the decease of
Goru coming on the top of all their other casualties, seemed to take the
courage out of them. It was as though they had come to the conclusion
that we with our guns were something more than mortal.

For several minutes they debated in evident hesitation. At last from out
of their array rode a single man, in whom I recognized one of the envoys
who had met us in the morning, carrying in his hand a white flag as he
had done before. Thereon I laid down my rifle in token that I would not
fire at him, wh