ure or
crevasse seaming the ground, but what on earth it was like above I had
no idea.

We walked lightly and on our toes in order to ensure silent progress. A
few minutes of this and the Xosa halted. The fissure had widened out,
and now a puff of fresh air bore token that we were getting into the
light of day, or rather of night, once more. Nor were we sorry, for our
subterranean progress was suggestive of snakes and all kinds of horrors.
I, for one, knew by a certain feel in the air that we were approaching
water.

A little further and again we halted. A patch of stars overhead, and
against it the black loom of what was probably a krantz or at any rate a
high bluff. The murmur of running water, also sounding from overhead,
at the same time smote upon our ears.

It was getting lighter. The moon was rising at last, and as we strained
our gaze through the thick bushy screen behind which we had halted, this
is what we saw.

We were looking down upon a circular pool whose surface reflected the
twinkling of the stars. On three sides of it ran an amphitheatre of
rock, varying from six to twenty feet in height. At the upper end where
the water fell into it in a thin stream, the rock dipped to the form of
a letter "V." All this we could make out in the dim light of the stars,
for as yet the face of the rock was in dark shadow. And yet, and yet--
as I gazed I could descry a striking resemblance to our own waterhole
except that this was more shut in.

"Remember," whispered the Xosa, impressively. "There is to be no
shooting. They are to be taken alive."

We promised, wondering the while where "they" were. A tension of
excitement, and eagerness for the coming struggle was upon all three of
us. For me I rebelled against the agreement which should deter me from
battering the life out of the black villains who had brought my darling
to this horrible place. What terrors must she not have endured? What
ghastly rites of devil worship were enacted here?

Foot by foot the light crept downwards, revealing the face of the rock
as the moon rose higher and higher. Then a violent nudge from Falkner,
at my side--but I had already seen.

The water was pouring down upon the head of what had once been a human
being. Now it was a dreadful, glistening slimy thing, half worn away by
the action of the running water. It was fixed in a crucified attitude,
facing outwards, bound by the wrists to a thick pole which was stretc