believe
me, I do so with all my heart."

Now, as he spoke these words, remembering what I had just heard,
my blood boiled in me, but I thought it wise to control myself, and
therefore only answered:

"Thank you."

"Of course," he went on, "we have both striven for this prize, but as
it has pleased God that you should win it, why, I am not one to bear
malice."

"I am glad to hear it," I replied. "I thought that perhaps you might be.
Now tell me, to change the subject, how long will Dingaan keep us here?"

"Oh! two or three days at most. You see, Allan, luckily I have been
able to persuade him to sign the treaty about the land without further
trouble. So as soon as that is done, you can all go home."

"The commandant will be very grateful to you," I said. "But what are you
going to do?"

"I do not know, Allan. You see, I am not a lucky fellow like yourself
with a wife waiting for me. I think that perhaps I shall stop here a
while. I see a way of making a great deal of money out of these Zulus;
and having lost everything upon that Delagoa Bay trek, I want money."

"We all do," I answered, "especially if we are starting in life. So when
it is convenient to you to settle your debts I shall be glad."

"Oh! have no fear," he exclaimed with a sudden lighting up of his dark
face, "I will pay you what I owe you, every farthing, with good interest
thrown in."

"The king has just told me that is your intention," I remarked quietly,
looking him full in the eyes. Then I walked on, leaving him staring
after me, apparently without a word to say.

I went straight to the hut that was allotted to Retief in the little
outlying guard-kraal, which had been given to us for a camp. Here I
found the commandant seated on a Kaffir stool engaged in painfully
writing a letter, using a bit of board placed on his knees as a desk.

He looked up, and asked me how I had got on with Dingaan, not being
sorry, as I think, of an excuse to pause in his clerical labours.

"Listen, commandant," I said, and, speaking in a low voice, so as not to
be overheard, I told him every word that had passed in the interviews I
had just had with Dingaan, with Thomas Halstead, and with Pereira.

He heard me out in silence, then said:

"This is a strange and ugly story, Allan, and if it is true, Pereira
must be an even bigger scoundrel than I thought him. But I can't believe
that it is true. I think that Dingaan has been lying to you for his own
purposes;