n."

As I walked behind the Xosa, I was all aglow with eagerness. What had
he discovered--or, had he discovered anything? Could I trust him? I
remembered my first dislike of him, and how it had faded. What could he
know of this last outrage? What part had he borne in it, if any? And
if none, how could he be of any assistance?

"Well, Jan Boom," I said when we were safe from possible interruption.
"You know of course that the man who is the one to enable me to recover
the _Inkosikazi_ unharmed, will find himself in possession of sufficient
cattle to purchase two new wives, with something to spare?"

"I know it, _Nkose_, and you--you also know what I said to you when I
wanted to remain and work for you," he answered significantly.

I did remember it. His words came back to me, though I had long since
dismissed them from my mind. The plot was thickening.

The Xosa took a long and careful look round, and if my patience was
strained to bursting point I knew enough of these people to know that
you never get anything out of them by hurrying them. Then he bent his
head towards me and whispered:

"If you follow my directions exactly you will recover the _Inkosikazi_.
If not you will never see her again."

"Never see her again?" I echoed with some idea of gaining time in order
to collect myself.

"Has Nyamaki ever been seen again?" said Jan Boom.

"Do you know where she is?"

"I know where she will be to-morrow night."

To-morrow night! And I had been expecting instant action.

"Look here," I said, seizing him by the shoulder with a grip that must
have hurt. "Has she been injured in any way? Tell me. Has she?"

"Not yet," he answered. "No--not yet. But--if you fail to find her,
and take her from where she is, to-morrow night--she will die, and that
not easily."

This time he did wince under my grip. In my awful agony I seemed hardly
to know what I was doing. The whole moonlit scene seemed to be whirling
round with me. My love--in peril! in peril of some frightful and
agonising form of death! Oh Heaven help me to keep my wits about me!
Some such idea must have communicated itself to the Xosa's mind, for he
said:

"_Nkose_ must keep cool. No man can do a difficult thing if his head is
not cool."

Even then I noticed that he was looking at me with wonder tinged with
concern. In ordinary matters--and some out of the ordinary--I was among
the coolest headed of mortals. Now I seemed quite thro