to be gone like Umslopogaas and myself.

While I was eating my breakfast Hans announced the venerable Billali,
who with a sweeping bow informed me that he had come to inquire when we
should be ready to start, as he had received orders to see to all the
necessary arrangements. I replied--within an hour, and he departed in a
hurry.

But little after the appointed time he reappeared with a number of
litters and their bearers, also with a bodyguard of twenty-five picked
men, all of whom we recognised as brave fellows who had fought well in
the battle. These men and the bearers old Billali harangued, telling
them that they were to guide, carry and escort us to the other side of
the great swamp, or further if we needed it, and that it was the word of
She-who-commands that if so much as the smallest harm came to any one
of us, even by accident, they should die every man of them "by the
hot-pot," whatever that might be, for I was not sure of the significance
of this horror.[*] Then he asked them if they understood. They replied
with fervour that they understood perfectly and would lead and guard us
as though we were their own mothers.

[*] For this see the book called "She."--Editor.

As a matter of fact they did, and I think would have done so
independently of Ayesha's command, since they looked upon Umslopogaas
and myself almost as gods and thought that we could destroy them all if
we wished, as we had destroyed Rezu and his host.

I asked Billali if he were not coming with us, to which he replied, No,
as She-who-commands had returned to her own place and he must follow
her at once. I asked him again where her own place might be, to which
he answered vaguely that it was everywhere and he stared first at the
heavens and then at the earth as though she inhabited most of them,
adding that generally it was "in the Caves," though what he meant by
that I did not know. Then he said that he was very glad to have met us
and that the sight of Umslopogaas killing Rezu was a spectacle that
he would remember with pleasure all his life. Also he asked me for a
present. I gave him a spare pencil that I possessed in a little German
silver case, with which he was delighted. Thus I parted with old
Billali, of whom I shall always think with a certain affection.

I noticed even then that he kept very clear indeed of Umslopogaas,
thinking, I suppose, that he might take a last opportunity to fulfil his
threats and introduce him to his terrib