er of the band
that was driving the cattle. "What is this we see? A fighting leader
of the Nokenke regiment, who slew three whites with his own assegai at
Isandhlwana, now turned white man's dog, now snapping at his absent
king. _Whou_, Qapela!"

"_Whou_! Qapela!" echoed the warriors, in roaring derision, as more and
more came crowding up.

He, thus held up to scorn, a ringed man of middle age, scowled savagely.
It was one thing to be derided by a branch of the Royal Tree, quite
another to be savagely hooted by a pack of unringed boys. It needed but
a spark to set the train alight, to bring on a savage and bloody fight
between the two rival factions.

"No dog of any white man am I, _Ndabezita_," [Note 1] he answered,
gloomily defiant. "I am but fulfilling the `word' of my chief."

"And thy chief? Who is he?" went on Dabulamanzi, his head thrown back,
in the pride of his royal rank as he confronted the man. "U' Jandone?"

"_Whou_! Jandone!" roared the warriors in scathing derision.

"Not so, _Ndabezita_," replied the other, in a cool sneering voice, as
that of one who is about to score. "My chief is a branch of the Royal
Tree; a long branch of the Royal Tree--ah-ah--a long branch. What of U'
Hamu?"

The point was that he had named another brother of the King, an older
one than Dabulamanzi; one of the chiefs under the Wolseley settlement,
who with John Dunn and Sibepu, and one or two more, was actively opposed
to Cetywayo's return.

"Ha! A long branch!" sneered Dabulamanzi. "A branch _cut-off_ from the
Royal Tree. How is that, Qapela?"

"_Whou_! Qapela!" roared the warriors again, pointing their assegais at
him in derision.

"As to `cut-off,' I know not," answered the other, stung out of his
natural respect towards one of the Royal House. "This I know--that that
branch now puts forth the most leaves. The `word' from it was: `Take
the cattle of Mnyamana,' and I have taken them."

"But no further shalt thou take them, dead leaf of the cut-off branch,"
replied Dabulamanzi, "for we have taken them from thee. See. There
they go."

Away--now quite at a distance, the animals were visible, going at a run,
propelled towards the mountain fastnesses by quite a number of men.
This fact, too, Qapela noted, and noted with significance, for it meant
that by just that number of warriors was the opposing impi reduced, thus
bringing it as nearly as possible upon equal terms with his own. He had
lost the