strong man
yet. Hallo! what's the matter? Look there."

The brothers turned round, and hardly knew whether to laugh or to be
alarmed; for a short distance away there was Dinny dancing about, waving
his arms and shouting, while Coffee and Chicory, each with his kiri,
were making attacks and feints, striking at the Irishman fiercely.

"Ah, would you, ye black baste?" shouted Dinny, as roaring now with
laughter the brothers ran back.

"Shoo, Shoo! get out, you dirty-coloured spalpeen. Ah, ye didn't. Kape
off wid you. An' me widout a bit of shtick in me fist. Masther Dick,
dear! Masther Jack! it's murthering me the two black Whiteboys are.
Kape off! Ah, would ye again! Iv I'd me shtick I'd talk to ye both,
and see if your heads weren't thick as a Tipperary boy's, I would.
Masther Dick! Masther Jack! they'll murther me avore they've done."

As aforesaid, the two Zulu boys had picked up a great deal of the
English language, but their understanding thereof was sometimes very
obscure. In this instance they had heard Dinny talking to his young
masters in a way that had made the tears come in Dick's eye, and driven
him and Jack away. This, in the estimation of the Zulu boys, must be
through some act of cruelty or insult. They did not like Dinny, who
made no attempt to disguise his contempt for them as "a pair of
miserable young haythens," but at the same time they almost idolised the
twin brothers as their superiors and masters, for whom they were almost
ready to lay down their lives.

Here then was a cause for war. Their nature was to love and fight, as
dearly as the wildest Irishman who was ever born. Dinny had offended
their two "bosses"--as they called them, after the fashion of the Dutch
Boers, and this set their blood on fire.

Hardly had the brothers walked away than, as if moved by the same
spirit, they forgot the beauty of the old boots in which they had been
parading--to such an extent that they kicked them off, and kiri in hand
made so fierce an attack upon unarmed Dinny that, after a show of
resistance, he fairly took to his heels and ran back to the house, just
as the brothers came up.

"Popo give him kiri," cried Chicory.

"Bechele de boy make Boss Dinny run," cried the other, his eyes
sparkling with delight. "No make de boss cry eye any more."

"No make Boss Dick cry eye any more," repeated Chicory.

The brothers looked at each other as they comprehended the meaning of
the attack.

"Wh