Also
he wished to know the secret counsel of these Boers, whose language, of
course, he understood as well as he did his own.

So making a circuit up the hillside, he crept towards them on his belly
as a snake creeps, wriggling in and out between the tufts of last year's
dead grass, which grew here in plenty, without so much as moving their
tops. At length he lay still in the centre of a bush that grew behind
a stone not five paces from where they were talking, whence he listened
intently to every word that passed their lips.

This was the substance of their talk; that for the reasons I have
already mentioned it would be best that I should die at once. Sentence,
said the commandant, had been passed, and could not be rescinded, since
even if it were, their offence would remain as heavy in the eyes of
the English authorities. But if they took me to their main camp to
be re-tried by their great council, possibly that sentence might be
rescinded and they be left individually and collectively to atone for
what they had done. Also they knew that I was very clever and might
escape in some other way to bring the English, or possibly the Zulus,
upon them, since they felt convinced that Dingaan and I were working
together for their destruction, and that while I had breath in my body I
should never cease my efforts to be avenged.

When it was found that they were all of one mind in this matter, the
question arose: What should be done? Somebody suggested that I should be
shot at once, but the commandant pointed out that such a deed, worked
at night, would look like murder, especially as it violated the terms of
their verdict.

Then another suggestion was made: that I should be brought out of my
house just before the dawn on pretence that it was time to ride; that
then I should be given the opportunity of escape and instantly shot
down. Or it might be pretended that I had tried to escape, with a like
result. Who, they urged, was to know in that half-light whether I had
or had not actually attempted to run for my life, or to threaten their
lives, circumstances under which the law said it was justifiable to
shoot a prisoner already formally condemned to death?

To this black counsel they all agreed, being so terribly afraid of a
poor English lad whose existence, although most of them did not know
this, was to be taken from him upon false evidence. But then arose
another question: By whose hand should the thing be done? Not one o