om the parapet and break our necks. We kept watch turn and turn
about. During my watch about midnight I heard a noise going on in the
hut behind us; scuffling and a stifled cry which turned my blood cold.
About an hour later a fire was lighted in the centre of the market-place
where the sheep had been sacrificed, and by the flare of it I could see
people moving. But what they did I could not see, which was perhaps as
well.

Next morning only one of the camelmen was left. This remaining man was
now almost crazy with fear, and could give no clear account of what had
happened to his companion.

The poor fellow implored us to take him away to our house, as he feared
to be left alone with "the black devils." We tried to do so, but armed
guards appeared mysteriously and thrust him back into his own hut.

This day was an exact repetition of the others. The same inspection of
the deceased and renewal of his food; the same cold, clouded sky, the
same agitated conferences in the market-place.

For the third time darkness fell upon us in that horrible place. Once
more we took refuge on the roof, but this night neither of us slept.
We were too cold, too physically miserable, and too filled with mental
apprehensions. All nature seemed to be big with impending disaster. The
sky appeared to be sinking down upon the earth. The moon was hidden, yet
a faint and lurid light shone now in one quarter of the horizon, now in
another. There was no wind, but the air moaned audibly. It was as though
the end of the world were near as, I reflected, probably might be
the case so far as we were concerned. Never, perhaps, have I felt so
spiritually terrified as I was during the dreadful inaction of that
night. Even if I had known that I was going to be executed at dawn, I
think that by comparison I should have been light-hearted. But the worst
part of the business was that I knew nothing. I was like a man forced to
walk through dense darkness among precipices, quite unable to guess when
my journey would end in space, but enduring all the agonies of death at
every step.

About midnight again we heard that scuffle and stifled cry in the hut
behind us.

"He's gone," I whispered to Marut, wiping the cold sweat from my brow.

"Yes," answered Marut, "and very soon we shall follow him, Macumazana."

I wished that his face were visible so that I could see if he still
smiled when he uttered those words.

An hour or so later the usual fire appeared i