ich indeed I could not do having nothing to fire. Seeing
this he came to within a few yards and halting, addressed Marut.

"O second Prophet of the Child," he said, "these are the words of Simba
the King: Your god has been too strong for us to-day, though in a day
to come it may be otherwise. I thought I had you in a pit; that you were
the bucks and I the hunter. But, though with loss, you have escaped out
of the pit," and the speaker glanced towards our retreating force which
was now but a cloud of dust in the far distance, "while I the hunter
have been gored by your horns," and again he glanced at the dead that
were scattered about the plain. "The noblest of the buck, the white bull
of the herd," and he looked at me, who in any other circumstances
would have felt complimented, "and you, O Prophet Marut, and one or two
others, besides those that I have slain, are however still in the pit
and your horn is a magic horn," here he pointed to my rifle, "which
pierces from afar and kills dead all by whom it is touched."

"So I caught those gentry well in the middle," thought I to myself, "and
with soft-nosed bullets!"

"Therefore I, Simba the King, make you an offer. Yield yourselves and
I swear that no spear shall be driven through your hearts and no knife
come near your throats. You shall only be taken to my town and there
be fed on the best and kept as prisoners, till once more there is peace
between the Black Kendah and the White. If you refuse, then I will
ring you round and perhaps in the dark rush on you and kill you all. Or
perhaps I will watch you from day to day till you, who have no water,
die of thirst in the heat of the sun. These are my words to which
nothing may be added and from which nothing shall be taken away."

Having finished this speech he rode back a few yards out of earshot, and
waited.

"What will you answer, Lord Macumazana?" asked Marut.

I replied by another question. "Is there any chance of our being rescued
by your people?"

He shook his head. "None. What we have seen to-day is but a small part
of the army of the Black Kendah, one regiment of foot and one of horse,
that are always ready. By to-morrow thousands will be gathered, many
more than we can hope to deal with in the open and still less in their
strongholds, also Harut will believe that we are dead. Unless the Child
saves us we shall be left to our fate."

"Then it seems that we are indeed in a pit, as that black brute of
a king